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An experimental investigation to model wheezing in lungs

A quarter of the world's population experience wheezing. These sounds have been used for diagnosis since the time of the Ebers Papyrus (ca 1500 BC). We know that wheezing is a result of the oscillations of the airways that make up the lung. However, the physical mechanisms for the onset of whee...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Gregory, A. L., Agarwal, A., Lasenby, J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8074657/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33972873
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201951
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author Gregory, A. L.
Agarwal, A.
Lasenby, J.
author_facet Gregory, A. L.
Agarwal, A.
Lasenby, J.
author_sort Gregory, A. L.
collection PubMed
description A quarter of the world's population experience wheezing. These sounds have been used for diagnosis since the time of the Ebers Papyrus (ca 1500 BC). We know that wheezing is a result of the oscillations of the airways that make up the lung. However, the physical mechanisms for the onset of wheezing remain poorly understood, and we do not have a quantitative model to predict when wheezing occurs. We address these issues in this paper. We model the airways of the lungs by a modified Starling resistor in which airflow is driven through thin, stretched elastic tubes. By completing systematic experiments, we find a generalized ‘tube law’ that describes how the cross-sectional area of the tubes change in response to the transmural pressure difference across them. We find the necessary conditions for the onset of oscillations that represent wheezing and propose a flutter-like instability model for it about a heavily deformed state of the tube. Our findings allow for a predictive tool for wheezing in lungs, which could lead to better diagnosis and treatment of lung diseases.
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spelling pubmed-80746572021-05-09 An experimental investigation to model wheezing in lungs Gregory, A. L. Agarwal, A. Lasenby, J. R Soc Open Sci Engineering A quarter of the world's population experience wheezing. These sounds have been used for diagnosis since the time of the Ebers Papyrus (ca 1500 BC). We know that wheezing is a result of the oscillations of the airways that make up the lung. However, the physical mechanisms for the onset of wheezing remain poorly understood, and we do not have a quantitative model to predict when wheezing occurs. We address these issues in this paper. We model the airways of the lungs by a modified Starling resistor in which airflow is driven through thin, stretched elastic tubes. By completing systematic experiments, we find a generalized ‘tube law’ that describes how the cross-sectional area of the tubes change in response to the transmural pressure difference across them. We find the necessary conditions for the onset of oscillations that represent wheezing and propose a flutter-like instability model for it about a heavily deformed state of the tube. Our findings allow for a predictive tool for wheezing in lungs, which could lead to better diagnosis and treatment of lung diseases. The Royal Society 2021-02-24 /pmc/articles/PMC8074657/ /pubmed/33972873 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201951 Text en © 2021 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Engineering
Gregory, A. L.
Agarwal, A.
Lasenby, J.
An experimental investigation to model wheezing in lungs
title An experimental investigation to model wheezing in lungs
title_full An experimental investigation to model wheezing in lungs
title_fullStr An experimental investigation to model wheezing in lungs
title_full_unstemmed An experimental investigation to model wheezing in lungs
title_short An experimental investigation to model wheezing in lungs
title_sort experimental investigation to model wheezing in lungs
topic Engineering
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8074657/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33972873
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201951
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