Respiración consciente

Este ejercicio es muy práctico y efectivo ya que consiste en enfocar la atención plenamente en la respiración. Al prestar atención a la inhalación y exhalación de forma consciente, se busca cultivar la conciencia del momento presente y calmar la mente.

Impact of Breathing Control Training Program on sonographic quantification of abdominal vasculature.

OBJECTIVES: To compare vascular scanning parameters (vessel diameter, peak systolic velocity, end-diastolic velocity, and resistive index) and scanning time before and after breathing control training program for selected abdominal vessels. METHODS: This study was pre and post quasi-experimental. The researchers designed a breathing training program that gives participants instructions through a video describing breathing maneuvers. Data were collected at the ultrasound laboratory/College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences in Princess Nourah bint Abdul Rahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from January 2023 to November 2023. About 49 volunteers at the university participated in the study. Scanning was performed two times for the right renal artery, upper abdominal aorta, inferior vena cava, and superior mesenteric artery. Scanning time was measured before and after the program as well. A paired sample t-test was used to compare the parameters means and time before and after the program. RESULTS: The program had a significant effect on the following parameters: right renal artery peak systolic velocity (p=0.042), upper abdominal aortic peak systolic velocity, and resistive index (p=0.014, p=0.014 respectively), superior mesenteric artery and inferior vena cava diameters (p=0.010 and p=0.020). The scanning time was reduced significantly (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The breathing training program saves time and improves ultrasound measurement quality. Hospitals and health centers should consider the importance of breathing control training programs before abdominal scanning.

Towards a better diagnosis of mouth breathing: validity and reliability of a protocol for assessing the awake breathing pattern in preschool children.

PURPOSE: The Awake Breathing Pattern Assessment (ABPA) is a prototypical clinical grid recently designed through an international consensus of Speech and Language Pathologists (SLPs) to categorize the awake and habitual breathing pattern during the orofacial myofunctional assessment. This cross-sectional study aims to explore the psychometric properties of the ABPA in a preschool population. METHODS: 133 children from 2;11 to 6 years old were assessed with the ABPA. The percentage of time spent breathing through the mouth was objectively measured by a CO2 sensor and used as a baseline measurement. We first performed a multivariate Latent Profile Analysis based on the CO2 measurement and a parental questionnaire to define the number of categories that best characterize the breathing pattern. Subsequently, we assessed the intra- and inter-rater reliability, internal consistency criterion validity, construct validity and sensitivity and specificity. RESULTS: The awake breathing pattern can best be described by two groups: nasal and mouth breathing. The ABPA, initially designed in three groups, was adjusted accordingly. This final version showed excellent intra-rater and inter-rater reliability. There was a significant correlation between the ABPA and the CO2 measurement. The ABPA showed a fair sensitivity and a good specificity. CONCLUSION: The reference tool based on CO2 data was used in children for the first time and was found to be reliable. The ABPA is a suitable tool for SLPs to confirm the diagnosis of mouth breathing in preschool children if more sensitive screening tools, like parental questionnaires, are used beforehand.

Effects of a choral program combining wind instrument performance and breathing training on respiratory function, stress, and quality of life in adolescents: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Choral activities are correlated with various health and wellbeing parameters. However, an intervention combining a music program using wind instruments and choral activities has not yet been investigated. Thus, this study aimed to assess the effects of a 12-week intervention combining a wind instrument performance program and a choral program on stress factors, quality of life, and respiratory function in adolescents located in a metropolitan city with exposure to air pollution. METHOD: This randomized controlled trial consisted of 50 adolescents, and the subjects were randomly assigned to a combination wind instrument and choral training group, a choral training group, and a control group. Following a 12-week intervention program, respiratory function, stress factors, and quality of life were compared between the three groups. RESULTS: Regarding respiratory function, with the exception of maximal inspiratory pressure, all measured variables exhibited an interaction to indicate a variation in the pattern of change(p<0.05). Furthermore, regarding stress factors and quality of life, all measured variables exhibited an interaction to indicate a variation in the pattern of change(p<0.05). As a result of the post-hoc analysis, significant differences were found in all variables in experimental group 1 compared to other groups (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The results showed that the 12-week intervention combining a wind instrument performance program and a choral program had positive effects in improving the respiratory function, stress factors, and quality of life in adolescents. This study findings are expected to support future studies aimed at promoting overall health including respiratory function and psychological factors through various music-based programs.

On the validity of the state space correspondence strategy based on k-nearest neighbor cross-predictability in assessing directionality in stochastic systems: Application to cardiorespiratory coupling estimation.

We tested the validity of the state space correspondence (SSC) strategy based on k-nearest neighbor cross-predictability (KNNCP) to assess the directionality of coupling in stochastic nonlinear bivariate autoregressive (NBAR) processes. The approach was applied to assess closed-loop cardiorespiratory interactions between heart period (HP) variability and respiration (R) during a controlled respiration (CR) protocol in 19 healthy humans (aged from 27 to 35 yrs, 11 females) and during active standing (STAND) in 25 athletes (aged from 20 to 40 yrs, all men) and 25 non-athletes (aged from 20 to 40 yrs, all men). Over simulated NBAR processes, we found that (i) the SSC approach can detect the correct causal relationship as the direction leads to better KNNCP from the past of the driver to the future state of the target and (ii) simulations suggest that the ability of the method is preserved in any condition of complexity of the interacting series. Over CR and STAND protocols, we found that (a) slowing the breathing rate increases the strength of the causal relationship in both temporal directions in a balanced modality; (b) STAND is more powerful in modulating the coupling strength on the pathway from HP to R; (c) regardless of protocol and experimental condition, the strength of the link from HP to R is stronger than that from R to HP; (d) significant causal relationships in both temporal directions are found regardless of the level of complexity of HP variability and R. The SSC strategy is useful to disentangle closed-loop cardiorespiratory interactions.

A multi-task learning model using RR intervals and respiratory effort to assess sleep disordered breathing.

BACKGROUND: Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) affects a significant portion of the population. As such, there is a need for accessible and affordable assessment methods for diagnosis but also case-finding and long-term follow-up. Research has focused on exploiting cardiac and respiratory signals to extract proxy measures for sleep combined with SDB event detection. We introduce a novel multi-task model combining cardiac activity and respiratory effort to perform sleep-wake classification and SDB event detection in order to automatically estimate the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) as severity indicator. METHODS: The proposed multi-task model utilized both convolutional and recurrent neural networks and was formed by a shared part for common feature extraction, a task-specific part for sleep-wake classification, and a task-specific part for SDB event detection. The model was trained with RR intervals derived from electrocardiogram and respiratory effort signals. To assess performance, overnight polysomnography (PSG) recordings from 198 patients with varying degree of SDB were included, with manually annotated sleep stages and SDB events. RESULTS: We achieved a Cohen's kappa of 0.70 in the sleep-wake classification task, corresponding to a Spearman's correlation coefficient (R) of 0.830 between the estimated total sleep time (TST) and the TST obtained from PSG-based sleep scoring. Combining the sleep-wake classification and SDB detection results of the multi-task model, we obtained an R of 0.891 between the estimated and the reference AHI. For severity classification of SBD groups based on AHI, a Cohen's kappa of 0.58 was achieved. The multi-task model performed better than a single-task model proposed in a previous study for AHI estimation, in particular for patients with a lower sleep efficiency (R of 0.861 with the multi-task model and R of 0.746 with single-task model with subjects having sleep efficiency < 60%). CONCLUSION: Assisted with automatic sleep-wake classification, our multi-task model demonstrated proficiency in estimating AHI and assessing SDB severity based on AHI in a fully automatic manner using RR intervals and respiratory effort. This shows the potential for improving SDB screening with unobtrusive sensors also for subjects with low sleep efficiency without adding additional sensors for sleep-wake detection.

A modular motion compensation pipeline for prospective respiratory motion correction of multi-nuclear MR spectroscopy.

Magnetic resonance (MR) acquisitions of the torso are frequently affected by respiratory motion with detrimental effects on signal quality. The motion of organs inside the body is typically decoupled from surface motion and is best captured using rapid MR imaging (MRI). We propose a pipeline for prospective motion correction of the target organ using MR image navigators providing absolute motion estimates in millimeters. Our method is designed to feature multi-nuclear interleaving for non-proton MR acquisitions and to tolerate local transmit coils with inhomogeneous field and sensitivity distributions. OpenCV object tracking was introduced for rapid estimation of in-plane displacements in 2D MR images. A full three-dimensional translation vector was derived by combining displacements from slices of multiple and arbitrary orientations. The pipeline was implemented on 3 T and 7 T MR scanners and tested in phantoms and volunteers. Fast motion handling was achieved with low-resolution 2D MR image navigators and direct implementation of OpenCV into the MR scanner's reconstruction pipeline. Motion-phantom measurements demonstrate high tracking precision and accuracy with minor processing latency. The feasibility of the pipeline for reliable in-vivo motion extraction was shown on heart and kidney data. Organ motion was manually assessed by independent operators to quantify tracking performance. Object tracking performed convincingly on 7774 navigator images from phantom scans and different organs in volunteers. In particular the kernelized correlation filter (KCF) achieved similar accuracy (74%) as scored from inter-operator comparison (82%) while processing at a rate of over 100 frames per second. We conclude that fast 2D MR navigator images and computer vision object tracking can be used for accurate and rapid prospective motion correction. This and the modular structure of the pipeline allows for the proposed method to be used in imaging of moving organs and in challenging applications like cardiac magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) guided radiotherapy.

Interdependence of cellular and network properties in respiratory rhythm generation.

How breathing is generated by the preBötzinger complex (preBötC) remains divided between two ideological frameworks, and a persistent sodium current (INaP) lies at the heart of this debate. Although INaP is widely expressed, the pacemaker hypothesis considers it essential because it endows a small subset of neurons with intrinsic bursting or "pacemaker" activity. In contrast, burstlet theory considers INaP dispensable because rhythm emerges from "preinspiratory" spiking activity driven by feed-forward network interactions. Using computational modeling, we find that small changes in spike shape can dissociate INaP from intrinsic bursting. Consistent with many experimental benchmarks, conditional effects on spike shape during simulated changes in oxygenation, development, extracellular potassium, and temperature alter the prevalence of intrinsic bursting and preinspiratory spiking without altering the role of INaP. Our results support a unifying hypothesis where INaP and excitatory network interactions, but not intrinsic bursting or preinspiratory spiking, are critical interdependent features of preBötC rhythmogenesis.

Impact of Serotonergic 5HT1A and 5HT2A Receptor Activation on the Respiratory Response to Hypercapnia in a Rat Model of Parkinson's Disease.

In Parkinson's disease (PD), along with typical motor dysfunction, abnormal breathing is present; the cause of which is not well understood. The study aimed to analyze the effects of stimulation of the serotonergic system with 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A agonists in a model of PD induced by injection of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA). To model PD, bilateral injection of 6-OHDA into both striata was performed in male Wistar rats. Respiratory disturbances in response to 7% hypercapnia (CO2 in O2) in the plethysmographic chamber before and after stimulation of the serotonergic system and the incidence of apnea were studied in awake rats 5 weeks after 6-OHDA or vehicle injection. Administration of 6-OHDA reduced the concentration of serotonin (5-HT), dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NA) in the striatum and the level of 5-HT in the brainstem of treated rats, which have been associated with decreased basal ventilation, impaired respiratory response to 7% CO2 and increased incidence of apnea compared to Sham-operated rats. Intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of the 5-HT1AR agonist 8-OH-DPAT and 5-HT2AR agonist NBOH-2C-CN increased breathing during normocapnia and hypercapnia in both groups of rats. However, it restored reactivity to hypercapnia in 6-OHDA group to the level present in Sham rats. Another 5-HT2AR agonist TCB-2 was only effective in increasing normocapnic ventilation in 6-OHDA rats. Both the serotonergic agonists 8-OH-DPAT and NBOH-2C-CN had stronger stimulatory effects on respiration in PD rats, compensating for deficits in basal ventilation and hypercapnic respiration. We conclude that serotonergic stimulation may have a positive effect on respiratory impairments that occur in PD.

The Effects of Yoga Breathing Before Motor Speech Practice in Acquired Apraxia of Speech: An n-of-1 Trial.

A previous study discovered that two speakers with moderate apraxia of speech increased their sequential motion rates after unilateral forced-nostril breathing (UFNB) practiced as an adjunct to speech-language therapy in an AB repeated-measures design. The current study sought to: (1) delineate possible UFNB plus practice effects from practice effects alone in motor speech skills; (2) examine the relationships between UFNB integrity, participant-reported stress levels, and motor speech performance; and (3) sample a participant-led UFNB training schedule to contribute to the literature's growing understanding of UFNB dosage. A single-subject (n-of-1 trial), ABAB reversal design was used across four motor speech behaviors. A 60-year-old female with chronic, severe apraxia of speech participated. The researchers developed a breathing app to assess UFNB practice integrity and administer the Simple Aphasia Stress Scale after each UFNB session. The participant improved from overall severe to moderate apraxia of speech on the Apraxia Battery for Adults. Visual inspection of graphs confirmed robust motor speech practice effects for all variables. Articulatory-kinematic variables demonstrated sensitivity to the UFNB-plus-practice condition and correlated to stress scale scores but not UFNB integrity scores. The participant achieved 20-minute UFNB sessions 4 times per week. Removal of UFNB during A2 (UFNB withdrawal) and after a 10-day break during B2 (UFNB full dosage) revealed UFNB practice effects on stress scale scores. UFNB with motor speech practice may benefit articulatory-kinematic skills compared to motor speech practice alone. Regular, cumulative UFNB practice appeared to lower self-perceived stress levels. These findings, along with prior work, provide a foundation to further explore yoga breathing and its use with speakers who have apraxia of speech.

Respiration and Heart Rate Monitoring in Smart Homes: An Angular-Free Approach with an FMCW Radar.

This paper proposes a new approach for wide angle monitoring of vital signs in smart home applications. The person is tracked using an indoor radar. Upon detecting the person to be static, the radar automatically focuses its beam on that location, and subsequently breathing and heart rates are extracted from the reflected signals using continuous wavelet transform (CWT) analysis. In this way, leveraging the radar's on-chip processor enables real-time monitoring of vital signs across varying angles. In our experiment, we employ a commercial multi-input multi-output (MIMO) millimeter-wave FMCW radar to monitor vital signs within a range of 1.15 to 2.3 m and an angular span of -44.8 to +44.8 deg. In the Bland-Altman plot, the measured results indicate the average difference of -1.5 and 0.06 beats per minute (BPM) relative to the reference for heart rate and breathing rate, respectively.

Assessment of maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressures in skeletal Class II patients with different growth patterns.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate maximal inspiratory (MIP) and expiratory (MEP) pressures, which are reflective of respiratory muscle strength, in skeletal Class II patients with different growth patterns (horizontal, average, and vertical) and to correlate those with airway dimension. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with a Class II skeletal base seeking orthodontic treatment were assigned to the following groups: average, horizontal, and vertical growth pattern. The control group (n = 14) comprised patients with a Class I skeletal base and average growth pattern. Airway dimensions were obtained using cone-beam computed tomography scans, and a spirometer with a pressure transducer was used for assessment of MIP and MEP. Routine spirometry for assessment of lung function was also performed. RESULTS: No significant differences were found in maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressures for the study groups in comparison with the control group. Class I patients had significantly greater oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal airway volumes compared with the study groups. No significant difference in minimal cross-section area of the airway was observed among groups. A weak positive correlation between maximal inspiratory pressure and airway volume was observed. CONCLUSIONS: Although Class I patients displayed significantly greater oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal airway volumes, there was no significant difference in respiratory muscle strength or airway function between Class II patients with different growth patterns and the Class I control group. The findings underscore the significance of exploring factors beyond craniofacial growth patterns that may contribute to sleep-related breathing disorders.

Aluminum Nitride Thin Film Piezoelectric Pressure Sensor for Respiratory Rate Detection.

In this study, we propose a low-cost piezoelectric flexible pressure sensor fabricated on Kapton® (Kapton™ Dupont) substrate by using aluminum nitride (AlN) thin film, designed for the monitoring of the respiration rate for a fast detection of respiratory anomalies. The device was characterized in the range of 15-30 breaths per minute (bpm), to simulate moderate difficult breathing, borderline normal breathing, and normal spontaneous breathing. These three breathing typologies were artificially reproduced by setting the expiratory to inspiratory ratios (E:I) at 1:1, 2:1, 3:1. The prototype was able to accurately recognize the breath states with a low response time (~35 ms), excellent linearity (R2 = 0.997) and low hysteresis. The piezoelectric device was also characterized by placing it in an activated carbon filter mask to evaluate the pressure generated by exhaled air through breathing acts. The results indicate suitability also for the monitoring of very weak breath, exhibiting good linearity, accuracy, and reproducibility, in very low breath pressures, ranging from 0.09 to 0.16 kPa. These preliminary results are very promising for the future development of smart wearable devices able to monitor different patients breathing patterns, also related to breathing diseases, providing a suitable real-time diagnosis in a non-invasive and fast way.

Unobtrusive Sensors for Synchronous Monitoring of Different Breathing Parameters in Care Environments.

Respiratory problems are common amongst older people. The rapid increase in the ageing population has led to a need for developing technologies that can monitor such conditions unobtrusively. This paper presents a novel study that investigates Wi-Fi and ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna sensors to simultaneously monitor two different breathing parameters: respiratory rate, and exhaled breath. Experiments were carried out with two subjects undergoing three breathing cases in breaths per minute (BPM): (1) slow breathing (12 BPM), (2) moderate breathing (20 BPM), and (3) fast breathing (28 BPM). Respiratory rates were captured by Wi-Fi sensors, and the data were processed to extract the respiration rates and compared with a metronome that controlled the subjects' breathing. On the other hand, exhaled breath data were captured by a UWB antenna using a vector network analyser (VNA). Corresponding reflection coefficient data (S11) were obtained from the subjects at the time of exhalation and compared with S11 in free space. The exhaled breath data from the UWB antenna were compared with relative humidity, which was measured with a digital psychrometer during the breathing exercises to determine whether a correlation existed between the exhaled breath's water vapour content and recorded S11 data. Finally, captured respiratory rate and exhaled breath data from the antenna sensors were compared to determine whether a correlation existed between the two parameters. The results showed that the antenna sensors were capable of capturing both parameters simultaneously. However, it was found that the two parameters were uncorrelated and independent of one another.

Improvement of Lung Function by Micronutrient Supplementation in Patients with COPD: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND: A healthy, well-balanced diet plays an essential role in respiratory diseases. Since micronutrient deficiency is relatively common in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), micronutrient supplementation might have the beneficial health effects in those patients. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to demonstrate the impact of micronutrient supplementation on the lung function of patients with COPD. METHODS: The PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases were searched from their corresponding creation until February 2024. Search terms included 'chronic obstructive pulmonary disease', 'COPD', 'micronutrients', 'dietary supplements', 'vitamins', 'minerals', and 'randomized controlled trials'. Meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the effects of micronutrient supplementation alone or complex on lung function in patients with COPD. RESULTS: A total of 43 RCTs fulfilled the inclusion criteria of this study. Meta-analysis revealed that vitamin D supplementation could significantly improve FEV1% (WMDdifferences between baseline and post-intervention (de): 6.39, 95% CI: 4.59, 8.18, p < 0.01; WMDpost-intervention indicators (af): 7.55, 95% CI: 5.86, 9.24, p < 0.01) and FEV1/FVC% (WMDde: 6.88, 95%CI: 2.11, 11.65, WMDaf: 7.64, 95% CI: 3.18, 12.10, p < 0.001), decrease the odds of acute exacerbations, and improve the level of T-cell subsets, including CD3+%, CD4+%, CD8+%, and CD4+/CD8+% (all p < 0.01). The effects of compound nutrients intervention were effective in improving FEV1% (WMDde: 8.38, 95%CI: 1.89, 14.87, WMDaf: 7.07, 95%CI: -0.34, 14.48) and FEV1/FVC% (WMDde: 7.58, 95% CI: 4.86, 10.29, WMDaf: 6.00, 95% CI: 3.19, 8.81). However, vitamin C and vitamin E supplementation alone had no significant effects on lung function (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Micronutrient supplementation, such as vitamin D alone and compound nutrients, has improved effect on the lung function of patients with COPD. Therefore, proper supplementation with micronutrients would be beneficial to stabilize the condition and restore ventilation function for COPD patients.

Probing corporeal awareness in women through virtual reality induction of embreathment illusion.

We capitalized on the respiratory bodily illusion that we discovered in a previous study and called 'Embreathment' where we showed that breathing modulates corporeal awareness in men. Despite the relevance of the issue, no such studies are available in women. To bridge this gap, we tested whether the synchronization of avatar-participant respiration patterns influenced females' bodily awareness. We collected cardiac and respiratory interoceptive measures, administered body (dis)satisfaction questionnaires, and tracked participants' menstrual cycles via a mobile app. Our approach allowed us to characterize the 'Embreathment' illusion in women, and explore the relationships between menstrual cycle, interoception and body image. We found that breathing was as crucial as visual appearance in eliciting feelings of ownership and held greater significance than any other cue with respect to body agency in both women and men. Moreover, a positive correlation between menstrual cycle days and body image concerns, and a negative correlation between interoceptive sensibility and body dissatisfaction were found, confirming that women's body dissatisfaction arises during the last days of menstrual cycle and is associated with interoception. These findings have potential implications for corporeal awareness alterations in clinical conditions like eating disorders and schizophrenia.

The air conditioning in the nose of mammals depends on their mass and on their maximal running speed.

The nose of the mammals is responsible for filtering, humidifying, and heating the air before entering the lower respiratory tract. This conditioning avoids, notably, dehydration of the bronchial and alveolar mucosa. However, since this conditioning is not perfect, exercising in cold air can induce lung inflammation, both for human and non-human mammals. This work aims to compare the air conditioning in the noses of various mammals during inspiration. We build our study on computational fluid dynamics simulations of the heat exchanges in the lumen of the upper respiratory tract of these mammals. These simulations show that the efficiency of the air conditioning in the nose during inspiration does not relate only to the mass m of the mammal but also to its maximal running speed v. More precisely, the results allow establishing a scaling law relating the efficiency of air conditioning in the nose of mammals to the ratio v / log 10 ( m ) . The simulations also correlate the resistance to the flow in the nose to the efficiency of this air conditioning. The obtained scaling law allows predicting the air temperature at the top of the trachea during inspiration for nasal-breathing mammals, and thus notably for humans of various ages.

Highly Sensitive Near-Field Electrochemical Sensor for In Vivo Monitoring of Respiratory Patterns.

Real-time tracking of respiratory patterns provides noninvasive and quick access for evaluating pathophysiological conditions yet remains challenging due to limited temporal resolution and poor sensitivity to dig out fingerprints of respiratory waveforms. Here, we report an electrochemical sensor for accurately tracing respiratory patterns of small animal models based on the electrochemical impedance mechanism for wireless coupling of a graphdiyne oxide (GYDO)-modified sensing coil chip and a reader coil chip via near-field magnetic induction. In the electrochemical impedance measurement mode, an alternating current is applied through the reader coil chip to perturb proton transport at the GYDO interface of the sensing coil chip. As demonstrated, a high-frequency perturbing condition significantly reduces the interfacial resistance for proton transport by 5 orders of magnitude under 95% relative humidity (RH) and improves the low-humidity responses with a limit of detection down to 0.2% RH, enabling in vivo accurate profiling of respiratory patterns on epileptic rats. The electrochemical impedance coupling system holds great potential for new wireless bioelectronics.

Influence of Breath-Mimicking Ventilated Incubation on Three-Dimensional Bioprinted Respiratory Tissue Scaffolds.

Development of respiratory tissue constructs is challenging due to the complex structure of native respiratory tissue and the unique biomechanical conditions induced by breathing. While studies have shown that the inclusion of biomechanical stimulus mimicking physiological conditions greatly benefits the development of engineered tissues, to our knowledge no studies investigating the influence of biomechanical stimulus on the development of respiratory tissue models produced through three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting have been reported. This paper presents a study on the utilization of a novel breath-mimicking ventilated incubator to impart biomechanical stimulus during the culture of 3D respiratory bioprinted constructs. Constructs were bioprinted using an alginate/collagen hydrogel containing human primary pulmonary fibroblasts with further seeding of human primary bronchial epithelial cells. Biomechanical stimulus was then applied via a novel ventilated incubator capable of mimicking the pressure and airflow conditions of multiple breathing conditions: standard incubation, shallow breathing, normal breathing, and heavy breathing, over a two-week time period. At time points between 1 and 14 days, constructs were characterized in terms of mechanical properties, cell proliferation, and morphology. The results illustrated that incubation conditions mimicking normal and heavy breathing led to greater and more continuous cell proliferation and further indicated a more physiologically relevant respiratory tissue model.