A Method and Apparatus for Interpreting Multi-Breath Nitrogen Washout Data

摘要

A novel method and apparatus for analyzing multi-breath nitrogen washout (MBNW) data from a lung is provided. The novel method includes fitting multi-compartment lung model, having five free parameters, to an exhaled nitrogen concentration profile over the entire duration of expiration for each breath from the lung. The five free parameters include 1) functional residual capacity, 2) dead space volume, 3) the standard deviation of the rate of change of fractional contribution to expired flow from each lung region as a function of lung volume, 4) the intrinsic slope of Phase-Ill due to acinar asymmetry, and 5) the coefficient of variation of regional specific ventilation.