Abstract

D'OTTAVIO, ALBERTO ENRIQUE; MATTARA, MARIO; PONSO, RAÚL R.  and  MEDINA, MABEL A.. CHARACTERISTICS AND IMPACT OF AIR FLOW IN BRONCHIECTASIS: AN INFORMATICS APPROACH IN RATS. rev.fac.med [online]. 2009, vol.17, n.1, pp.34-39. ISSN 0121-5256.

Bronchiectasia, the final result of different illnesses is not an illness in itself. Expanding on a previous study on congenital bronchiectasia in laboratory rats and considering that they locate mostly in the post-bifurcations of the bronchial tree, numerical programs, simulators of airflow behaviour, were applied for evaluating it cinematically and dynamically. Likewise its impact on the characteristics of the bronchial wall and consequently on the generation and development of bronchiectasia were analyzed. Acrylic casts of bronchial trees were obtained after injection in 15 male Wistar rats at 6 months of age. Under a stereoscopic microscope (6x to 40x), the lengths and diameters of bronchiectasia were measured with double point compasses and callipers, respectively, and ocular grids for the smaller structures. The sample data once tridimensionally modelled and discretized was subsequently incorporated into a Comsol® program, based on the Finite Element Method. The interaction among detected vortex, and the referred zone pressures and dead zones with still air could render a vicious cycle, making possible not only the generation and development of bronchiectasia but also the aggravation of eventual pre-existing super infections.

Keywords : bronchiectasia; respiratory airflow.

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