VAGAL AFFERENTS--SENSATIONS ARISING FROM THE LUNG

描述（改编自申请人的摘要）：本提案侧重于 由肺产生的感觉。 电刺激引起的感觉 迷走神经的刺激，并由各种刺激施加到 清醒的人的肺或单个肺段和肺叶将被 考察 由施加于肺的各种刺激引起的感觉 包括支气管收缩和局部肺叶或肺段膨胀 和肺萎陷将在正常受试者、患有 失神经肺（肺移植后）和受试者 去神经胸壁（高位颈脊髓横断）。 的 拟议的实验解决了几个问题：（a） 感觉来自肺传入，（B）哪种类型的肺 传入负责各种感觉，（c）是肺 感觉很好地定位于肺区域，（d）什么是可感知的 应用于肺传入神经的各种刺激的阈值。 具体 将确定以下内容：1）什么呼吸感觉产生于 电刺激清醒的人的迷走神经，2）是否 感觉到与支气管收缩相关的“紧张”感觉 由肺部去神经支配的受试者，3）肺部产生的感觉是否 通过局部麻醉消除肺叶或分段肺膨胀，或 肺的去神经支配，4）从局部塌陷引起的感觉， 肺段 迷走神经传入被认为是 呼吸困难和肺部产生的其他呼吸感觉。 这些研究有望增加对这些性质的理解 提高呼吸感觉的诊断和管理 心肺疾病

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from the applicant's abstract): This proposal focuses on sensations arising from the lung. Sensations arising from electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve and resulting from various stimuli applied to the lungs or individual lung segments and lobes in awake humans will be examined. Sensations resulting from various stimuli applied to the lung including bronchoconstriction and localized lobar or segment lung inflation and lung collapse will be performed in normal subjects, subjects with denervated lungs (following lung transplantation) and subjects with denervated chest walls (high cervical spinal cord transection). The proposed experiments address several questions: (a) what qualities of sensations arise from pulmonary afferents, (b) which types of pulmonary afferents are responsible for various sensations, (c) are pulmonary sensations well localized to lung regions, (d) what are the perceptible thresholds of various stimuli applied to pulmonary afferents. Specifically the following will be determined: 1) what respiratory sensations arise from electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve in awake humans, 2) whether the sensations of "tightness" associated with bronchoconstriction is perceived by subjects with denervated lungs, 3) whether the sensations produced by lobar or segmented lung inflation is abolished by topical anesthesia or denervation of the lungs, 4) what sensations arise from focal collapse of lung segments. Vagal afferents are proposed to be the source of breathlessness and other respiratory sensations arising from the lung. These studies are expected to increase the understanding of the properties of respiratory sensation and improve the diagnosis and management of cardiopulmonary disease.