Minute ventilation

Minute ventilation (or respiratory minute volume or minute volume) is the volume of gas inhaled (inhaled minute volume) or exhaled (exhaled minute volume) from a person's lungs per minute. It is an important parameter in respiratory medicine due to its relationship with blood carbon dioxide levels. It can be measured with devices such as a Wright respirometer or can be calculated from other known respiratory parameters. Although minute volume can be viewed as a unit of volume, it is usually treated in practice as a flow rate (given that it represents a volume change over time). Typical units involved are (in metric) 0.5 L × 12 breaths/min = 6 L/min. Several symbols can be used to represent minute volume. They include V ˙ {\displaystyle {\dot {V}}} (V̇ or V-dot) or Q (which are general symbols for flow rate), MV, and VE.