Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Publication

The role of heterogeneity in asthma: a structure-to-function perspective

Lui, Justin K.
Lutchen, Kenneth R.
Embargo Expiration Date
Link to Full Text
Abstract

A number of methods have evolved through the years in probing the dysfunction that impacts mechanics and ventilation in asthma. What has been consistently found is the notion of heterogeneity that is not only captured in the frequency dependence of lung mechanics measurements but also rendered on imaging as patchy diffuse areas of ventilation defects. The degree of heterogeneity has been linked to airway hyperresponsiveness, a hallmark feature of asthma. How these heterogeneous constriction patterns lead to functional impairment in asthma have only been recently explored using computational airway tree models. By synthesizing measurements of lung mechanics and advances in imaging, computational airway tree models serve as a powerful engine to accelerate our understanding of the physiologic changes that occur in asthma. This review will be focused on the current state of investigational work on the role of heterogeneity in asthma, specifically exploring the structural and functional relationships.

Source

Clin Transl Med. 2017 Dec;6(1):29. doi: 10.1186/s40169-017-0159-0. Epub 2017 Aug 3. Link to article on publisher's site

Year of Medical School at Time of Visit
Sponsors
Dates of Travel
DOI
10.1186/s40169-017-0159-0
PubMed ID
28776171
Other Identifiers
Notes
Funding and Acknowledgements
Corresponding Author
Related Resources
Related Resources
Repository Citation
Rights
© The Author(s) 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.