F-0716 Study on airway buckling in respiratory system

Abstract

In bronchus asthma which is a pulmonary chronic disease due to a kind of chornic bronchitis, spasmodically narrowing of the airway happens and breathing becomes difficult, it may lead to death. It is necessary to investigate its mechanism. The interesting characteristic of asthma airway is that its buckling consists of approximately 8 to 15 folds into the airway lumen. It is considered to be caused by rapid constriction of smooth muscle. We paid attention to a rapid change in the transmural pressure instead of the constriction of smooth muscle. We used collapsible tubes which are soft and easy to be collapsed as a model of the airway. We made an apparatus which gave a sudden increase in the pressure outside the tube, and visualized the shape of the cross-section of the tube by a laser sheet method.