Parenchymal strain heterogeneity during oscillatory ventilation: why two frequencies are better than one

Abstract

High-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) relies on low tidal volumes cycled at supraphysiological rates, producing fundamentally different mechanisms for gas transport and exchange compared with conventional mechanical ventilation. Despite the appeal of using low tidal volumes to mitigate the risks of ventilator-induced lung injury, HFOV has not improved mortality for most clinical indications. This may be due to nonuniform and frequency-dependent distribution of flow throughout the lung. The goal of this study was to compare parenchymal strain heterogeneity during eucapnic HFOV when using oscillatory waveforms that consisted of either a single discrete frequency or two simultaneous frequencies. We utilized a three-dimensional, anatomically structured canine lung model for simulating frequency-dependent ventilation distribution. Gas transport was simulated via direct alveolar ventilation, advective mixing at bifurcations, turbulent and oscillatory dispersion, and molecular diffusion. Volume amplitudes at each oscillatory frequency were iteratively optimized to attain eucapnia. Ventilation using single-frequency HFOV demonstrated increasing heterogeneity of acinar flow and CO2 elimination with frequency for frequencies greater than the resonant frequency. For certain pairs of frequencies, a linear combination of the two corresponding ventilation distributions yielded reduced acinar strain heterogeneity compared with either frequency alone. Our model demonstrates that superposition of two simultaneous oscillatory frequencies can achieve more uniform ventilation distribution, and therefore lessen the potential for ventilator-induced lung injury, compared with traditional single-frequency HFOV.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2018
Source ID
10.1152/japplphysiol.00615.2017

Entities

People

  • David W. Kaczka
  • Jacob Herrmann
  • Merryn Tawhai

Organizations

  • National Institutes of Health
  • United States Department of Defense
  • University of Auckland
  • University of Iowa

Tags

Readers

  • Cardiovascular Physiology
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Finite Element Method (FEM) for solving Partial Differential Equations (PDEs)