Background/aim: Pneumocardiography (PNCG) is the recording method of cardiac-induced tracheal air flow and pressure pulsations in the respiratory airways. PNCG signals reflect both the lung and heart actions and could be accurately recorded in spontaneously breathing anesthetized rats. Nonlinear analysis methods, including the Lyapunov exponent, can be used to explain the biological dynamics of systems such as the cardiorespiratory system. Materials and methods: In this study, we recorded tracheal air flow signals, including PNCG signals, from 3 representative anesthetized rats and analyzed the nonlinear behavior of these complex signals using Lyapunov exponents. Results: Lyapunov exponents may also be used to determine the normal and pathological structure of biological systems. If the signals have at least one positive Lyapunov exponent, the signals reflect chaotic activity, as seen in PNCG signals in rats; the largest Lyapunov exponents of the signals of the healthy rats were greater than zero in this study. Conclusion: A method was proposed to determine the diagnostic and prognostic values of the cardiorespiratory system of rats using the arrangement of the PNCG and Lyapunov exponents, which may be monitored as vitality indicators.