Oscillation spirometry and variability of airway resistance

本提案的目标是开发一种新的设备，用于评估肺功能，适用于儿童和成人。为了测量一个人的肺功能，医生会要求病人深吸气，然后通过一根管子尽可能快地用力呼气。一个人通过气管的空气量决定了呼吸道的健康程度。不幸的是，这种测量需要大量的努力和训练，因此，6岁以下的儿童，哮喘通常是第一次诊断不能可靠地做的措施.目前还没有推荐的儿童肺功能的客观测量方法，我们正在开发一种新的设备，称为振荡肺活量计，可能有助于填补这一空白。它能使少量的空气从病人的口腔和呼吸道进出。空气进出所需的压力越大，设备确定的气道必须越窄。通过追踪3分钟的变化，我们得到了另一个测量气道直径变化的方法。这个方法很有趣，因为我们发现哮喘患者的气道直径变化比非哮喘患者大得多。我们还发现，当哮喘患者服用一种吸入剂时，它不仅能扩张狭窄的气道，而且还能减少气道的变异，换句话说，它能使气道平静下来。我们正在开发的新设备将进行标准的肺量测定，也将测量向病人肺部吹气的困难程度，最终还将测量随着时间的推移这种困难程度的变化。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气道变化的敏感程度，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.