Assessment of airways geometric models based on gas transport to the blood

Abstract

Engineers need to understand the respiratory process in order to design machines and medicines to help doctors deal with patients whose respiratory system function incorrectly or with difficulty. For this purpose we worked on developing the AUB pulmonary model by updating and validating this model and creating an automated interface tool that facilitates our model's usage. The main aim of our work was using this model to carry out assessment of existing airways network models. Topological structure of bronchial trees controls transport of gases and aerosols in the respiratory system. We start by providing a quantitative assessment of the alternative tree representations' ability to predict observable geometric and mechanistic characteristics, such as network resistance, dead space volume, and path length. Then we present a model of dynamic transport of oxygen and carbon dioxide along the airways, in the alveoli, across the alveolar membrane, and along the pulmonary blood capillaries. The model also accounts for the exchange of these two gases with blood in the capillaries, as well as age, gender and other in-species characteristics. Our model's predictions are compared with corresponding observations, providing an addition venue to assess the validity of the existing representations of the lung's bronchial tree.