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MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF VENTILATION DEFECTS IN ASTHMA
Tilo Winkler1, Jose G Venegas1, R Scott Harris2
1Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Abstract:
Airway narrowing by smooth muscle constriction is a hallmark of asthma attacks that may cause severe difficulties of breathing. However, the causes of asthma and the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Bronchoconstriction within a bronchial tree involves complex interactions among the airways that lead to the emergence of regions of poor ventilation (ventilation defects, VDefs) in the lungs. The emphasis of this review is on mathematical modeling of the mechanisms involved in bronchoconstriction and the emergence of the complex airway behavior that leads to VDefs. Additionally, the review discusses characteristic model behaviors and experimental data to demonstrate advances and limitations of different models.
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