Oscillation spirometry and variability of airway resistance

这项建议的目标是开发一种新的设备，用于评估儿童和成人都适用的肺功能。为了测量一个人的肺功能，医生会要求病人通过管子以尽可能快的速度深吸一口气。人体通过气管的空气量决定了呼吸道的健康程度。不幸的是，这项测量需要大量的努力和培训，因此，6岁以下的儿童通常是第一次被诊断为哮喘，因此无法可靠地进行这项测量。目前还没有推荐的儿童肺功能客观测量方法。我们正在开发一种名为振荡肺活计的新设备，它可能有助于填补这一空白。它可以输送少量的空气，这些空气进出患者的口腔和呼吸道。吸入和排出空气所需的压力越大，该设备确定的呼吸道必须越窄。通过跟踪这种变化大约3分钟，我们得到了另一种测量呼吸道直径变化的方法。这一测量很有趣，因为我们发现哮喘患者的气道直径变化比没有哮喘的人要大得多。我们还发现，当哮喘患者吸一口气时，它不仅扩张狭窄的呼吸道，而且还减少了它们的变异--或者换句话说，它使它们平静下来。我们正在开发的新设备将进行标准的肺活量测量，还将测量吸入患者肺部的难度，最后还将测量这种变化随时间的变化。除了制造一种新的设备，我们还在探索这种新的测量方法对哮喘患者呼吸道变化的敏感性，以及这种测量方法与哮喘严重程度的关系。

The goal of this proposal is to develop a novel device for assessing lung function suitable for both children andadults. In order to measure a person's lung function, a physician will ask a patient to inhale deeply and exhaleas hard and as fast as possible through a tube. The amount of air the person gets through the tube determineshow healthy the airways are. Unfortunately this measurement requires significant effort and training and thuschildren under the age of 6 where asthma is usually first diagnosed cannot reliably do the measure. Currentlythere is no recommended objective measurement for lung function in children.We are developing a new device known as an oscillation spirometer that may help fill that gap. It movessmall amounts of air that puff into and out of a patient's mouth and airways. The more pressure required to getthat air in and out, the more narrow the device determines the airway must be. By tracking how this changes forabout 3 minutes, we get another measure of how much airway diameters are changing.This measure is interesting, because we have found that the airway diameters in asthmatics are changingmuch more than in people without asthma. Also we have found that when an asthmatic takes a puffer, it notonly dilates narrowed airways, but it also reduces their variation¬ - or in other words, it calms them down. Thenew device we are developing will perform standard spirometry and will also measure how difficult it is to puffair into a patient's lungs, and it will finally also measure how that changes over time. As well as building a newdevice, we are exploring how sensitive this new measurement is to changes in an asthmatic's airways, and howthis measurement relates to the severity of asthma.