Numerical modelling and analysis of peripheral airway asymmetry and ventilation in the human adult lung

We present a new one-dimensional model of gas transport in the human adult lung. The model comprises asymmetrically branching airways, and heterogeneous interregional ventilation. Our model differs from previous models in that we consider the asymmetry in both the conducting and the acinar airways in detail. Another novelty of our model is that we use simple analytical relationships to produce physiologically realistic models of the conducting and acinar airway trees. With this new model, we investigate the effects of airway asymmetry and heterogeneous interregional ventilation on the phase III slope in multibreath washouts. The model predicts the experimental trend of the increase in the phase III slope with breath number in multibreath washout studies for nitrogen, SF(6) and helium. We confirm that asymmetrical branching in the acinus controls the magnitude of the first-breath phase III slope and find that heterogeneous interregional ventilation controls the way in which the slope changes with subsequent breaths. Asymmetry in the conducting airways appears to have little effect on the phase III slope. That the increase in slope appears to be largely controlled by interregional ventilation inhomogeneities should be of interest to those wishing to use multibreath washouts to detect the location of the structural abnormalities within the lung.