CAREER: Biomechanics of Tension-Induced Lung Tissue Fracture and Subsequent Pulmonary Air Leak

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。这项教师早期职业发展(CAREAR)奖将支持研究机械通气如何损伤肺软组织的研究。这项工作还将研究可能导致肺部空气泄漏的组织损伤。机械通气是治疗许多临床并发症的一种救命方法。这项研究将使用一种工程方法来更好地了解经历长时间机械通气的肺组织的生物物理特征。首先，这项工作将研究肺组织强度与空气泄漏造成的损伤之间的关系。其次，这项工作将使用声学来量化空气泄漏伤害的严重程度。这项工作很重要，因为肺组织如何对重复的气压负荷做出反应仍然知之甚少。众所周知，在机械通气过程中，由于反复用力拉伸肺，会造成肺组织的损伤和撕裂。通过受损的组织，吸入的空气可能会渗入胸腔，导致呼吸衰竭。这项工作的结果最终可以帮助将机械通气过程中的肺损伤降至最低。这项工作将产生对肺组织如何行为的基本见解，从而造福社会。它还将促进创新技术的发展。此外，本研究将与教育相结合，为当地少数民族学生提供以学生为中心的STEM体验。这个项目的总体研究目标是了解肺的内在变形机制如何在反复过度扩张时发生动态变化，以及这种变化如何与可导致肺空气泄漏的张力性肺组织骨折有关。因此，本项目将研究肺组织骨折和随后的空气泄漏的可量化特征，为张力性肺组织损伤的生物力学提供一套全面的解释。本研究在两个研究目标下进行：1)确定机械通气过程中肺组织的力学特性对肺组织骨折的起始、传播和解决的影响；2)确定通过动态气流-组织相互作用产生的漏气声的声学特征，以评估声信号作为漏气损伤的可量化指标的作用。这项研究的成功完成将产生新的知识，可以为软组织的非线性变形和断裂力学提供基本的见解，最终改进张力性肺损伤的诊断、治疗和预防。此外，这项工作将使PI能够在肺力学方面开创一个有影响力和可持续的研究生涯，并成为一名致力于减轻少数族裔学生学习障碍的教育工作者。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award will support research to investigate how soft lung tissue can be injured by mechanical ventilation. This work will also study tissue injury that can lead to air leak in the lungs. Mechanical ventilation has been a life-saving therapy for many clinical complications. This research will use an engineering approach to better understand the biophysical characteristics of lung tissue that undergoes prolonged mechanical ventilation. First, this work will study the relationship between the strength of lung tissue and injuries caused by air leak. Second, this work will use acoustics to quantify the severity of air leak injuries. This work is important because how the lung tissue responds to repeated air pressure loading remains poorly understood. It is known that lung tissue can be damaged and torn due to repeated forceful stretching of the lung during mechanical ventilation. Through the damaged tissue, inhaled air can leak into the chest cavity and cause respiratory failure. The results of this work can ultimately help minimize lung injury during mechanical ventilation. The work will benefit society by generating fundamental insights into how lung tissue behaves. It will also facilitate the development of innovative technologies. Further, this research will be integrated with education to provide student-centered STEM experiences to local minority students. The overall research goal of this project is to understand how the intrinsic deformation mechanics of the lung is altered dynamically in response to repeated overdistension, and how the alternation is linked to tension-induced fracture of soft lung tissue that can lead to pulmonary air leak. Accordingly, this project will investigate quantifiable characteristics of lung tissue fracture and subsequent air leak to provide a set of comprehensive explanations for the biomechanics of tension-induced lung tissue injury. This study is organized under two research objectives: 1) determining the impacts of mechanical properties of lung tissue on initiation, propagation, and resolution of lung tissue fracture during mechanical ventilation; and 2) identifying acoustic characteristics of air leak sound generated via dynamic airflow-tissue interaction to evaluate the role of acoustic signal as a quantifiable indicator of air leak injury. Successful completion of the study will generate new knowledge that can provide fundamental insights into non-linear deformation and fracture mechanics of soft lung tissue, ultimately offering improved diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of tension-induced lung injury. Further, the work will allow the PI to initiate an impactful and sustainable research career in lung mechanics, and become an educator who is dedicated to mitigating learning barriers for underrepresented minority students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.