Characterization of the branching structure of the lung from "macroscopic"pressure-volume measurements - art. no. 058102

We analyze the problem of fluid flow in a bifurcating structure containing random blockages that can be removed by fluid pressure. We introduce an asy mmetric tree model and find that the predicted pressure-volume relation is connected to the distribution II(n) of the generation number n of the tree' s terminal segments. We use this relation to explore the branching structur e of the lung by analyzing experimental pressure-volume data from dog lungs . The II(n) extracted from the data using the model agrees well with experi mental data on the branching structure. We can thus obtain information abou t the asymmetric structure of the lung from macroscopic, noninvasive pressu re-volume measurements.