A Plethysmograph is a rigid chamber placed around a living structure for the purpose of measuring changes in the volume of the structure. In respiratory measurements, the entire body is ordinarily enclosed ("body plethysmograph") and the plethysmograph is used to measure changes in volume of gas in the system produced
1) by solution and volatilization (e.g., uptake of foreign gases into the blood),
2) by changes in pressure or temperature (e.g., gas compression in the lungs, expansion of gas upon passing into the warm, moist lungs), or
3) by breathing through a tube to the outside. Three types of plethysmograph are used:
a) pressure,
b) volume, and
c) pressure-volume. In type a, the body chambers have fixed volumes and volume changes are measured in terms of pressure change secondary to gas compression (inside the chamber, outside the body). In type b, the body chambers serve essentially as conduits between the body surface and devices (spirometers or integrating flowmeters) which measure gas displacements. Type c combines a and b by appropriate summing of chamber pressure and volume displacements.