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Abstract #1322

Long-Range Diffusion of 3He in Lungs: Evidence for Collateral Ventilation Pathways from Comparison of Computer Simulations and Measurements

Conradi M, Woods J, Gierada D, Bartel S, Haywood S
Washington University, Washington University

A computer simulation of diffusion within a regular symmetric dichotomous branching model of human lungs has shown the long-range effective diffusivity to be roughly 20 times smaller than what has previously been measured in healthy lungs. Collateral ventilation pathways, which were not implemented in the simulation, may help explain this discrepancy. The simulations and measurements on a healthy volunteer at two different lung volumes preliminarily suggest the role of collateral pathways in long-range diffusion.