OSCILLATORY FLOW OF HFV DISTRIBUTED IN LEFT AND RIGHT LUNGS: A MODEL-BASED EXPERIMENT AND INVESTIGATION

The human respiratory system is not entirely symmetric, and regional respiratory diseases can further enlarge this difference in most cases. Therefore, the lungs perform differently. This paper explored the possibilities of suppressing and enhancing the performance of a diseased lung with different high-frequency ventilation (HFV) frequencies by experimenting, as well as modeling, the oscillatory airflow distribution between the left and right lungs. The experimental setup mainly consisted of a physical respiratory model, a signal acquisition device, and a high-frequency oscillation ventilator. This ventilator outputs a positive sinusoidal air-pressure during inspiration. On these bases, a series of experiments were also conducted with different compliances and resistances in the left and the right lungs. The experiments demonstrated that the oscillatory flow distribution is primarily correlated with the oscillation frequency and the regional lung compliance.