No abstract

No abstract

Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) is the leading cause of mortality in premature infants, arising primarily from a lack of surfactant in the lung. The dynamic behavior of surface tension in the alveoli is modelled using a numerical model and compared with in-vitro experimentation on a pulsating bubble surfactometer (PBS). The effect of adding superimposed oscillations (from 10–70 Hz) on the breathing frequency is investigated in both the model and experiment. The model and experiment show encouraging comparisons and suggest that the mechanisms of improving surfactant function with oscillatory treatments lie with the increase of diffusion and adsorption of surfactant molecules to the air-liquid interface in the alveoli.

No abstract

The use of respiratory support devices using pressure oscillations has been shown to improve alveolar recruitment in animals and provide clinical benefits over traditional ventilators to infants with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). The interactions and mechanisms of human lungs with such "bubble oscillation" (BO) devices is unknown. A simple mathematical model of the respiratory system and a BO type device is developed to explore the use of a new assessment parameter to study the effect of the pressure oscillations on lung performance. A mean square spectral density (MSSD) approach is employed in an attempt to observe the contribution of each pressure oscillation frequency on the work rate of unhealthy lungs. Further improvements to the respiratory system model are suggested for more detailed studies into human lung interactions with BO type devices.