Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Recent advances in imaging methods dedicated to the lung include methods that involve inhaled gases that provide a unique magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signal or contrast. These novel MRI methods as based on the magnetization (or hyperpolarization) of noble gases such as 3He and 129Xe and have been pioneered at a handful of imaging research centres (including ours) for measurements of lung function that until now have never been possible. The traditional view of lung function and mechanics has been derived from simple 2 compartment models and measurements developed using pressure and flow measurements at the mouth or tubes fixed to the end of the trachea of excised lungs. Despite the importance of these traditional approaches, it has unfortunately, not yet been possible to incorporate regional lung information to better develop lung models of function and mechanics. To directly address this decades-old problem, we propose to incorporate lung imaging measurements of airway and airspace structure and function into existing models of lung micromechanics and to develop new models and test these using regional functional imaging information. Therefore the overarching objective of our proposed research program is to develop new ways to use lung tissue and airway functional and structural quantitative measurements derived from 3He and 129Xe MR images in obstructive lung disease like asthma and COPD as well as healthy volunteers to generate and develop robust mathematical models of the biomechanics in healthy and diseased lung. This approach provides a way to incorporate, test and validate regional in vivo imaging measurements to generate novel micromechanical models of the lung.