Quantifying parenchymal tethering in a finite element simulation of a human lung slice under bronchoconstriction.

ABSTRACT: Airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR), a hallmark of asthma, is a highly complex phenomenon characterised by multiple processes manifesting over a large range of length and time scales. Multiscale computational models have been derived to embody the experimental understanding of AHR. While current models differ in their derivation, a common assumption is that the increase in parenchymal tethering pressure P(teth) during airway constriction can be described using the model proposed by Lai-Fook (1979), which is based on intact lung experimental data for elastic moduli over a range of inflation pressures. Here we reexamine this relationship for consistency with a nonlinear elastic material law that has been parameterised to the pressure-volume behaviour of the intact lung. We show that the nonlin

SUBMITTER: Breen BJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3423447 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature