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Structure And Function Of Asthma Evaluated Using Pulmonary Imaging, Rachel L. Eddy

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Asthma has been understood to affect the airways in a spatially heterogeneous manner for over six decades. Computational models of the asthmatic lung have suggested that airway abnormalities are diffusely and randomly distributed throughout the lung, however these mechanisms have been challenging to measure in vivo using current clinical tools. Pulmonary structure and function are still clinically characterized by the forced expiratory volume in one-second (FEV₁) – a global measurement of airflow obstruction that is unable to capture the underlying regional heterogeneity that may be responsible for symptoms and disease worsening. In contrast, pulmonary magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) …