A pulmonary ventilation system including storage for an empirical relationship that is designed and adapted to determine at least one pulmonary ventilation parameter as a function of a plurality of measured anatomical distances and volume-motion coefficients, acquisition circuitry for acquiring the anatomical distances, a processor for determining the plurality of motion coefficients, and a processor for determining the ventilation parameter based on the acquired anatomical distances and determined plurality of volume-motion coefficients. In one embodiment, the system further includes correlating a base-line ventilation characteristic to the ventilation parameter determined with the empirical relationship.
