Left and right lung asynchrony as a physiological indicator for unilateral bronchial obstruction in interventional bronchoscopy

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 9; no. 8; p. e105327
• Main Authors: Mineshita, Masamichi, Kida, Hirotaka, Nishine, Hiroki, Handa, Hiroshi, Inoue, Takeo, Miyazawa, Teruomi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 18.08.2014; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Acoustics; Adult; Aged; Air flow; Airway management; Airway Obstruction - physiopathology; Asthma; Biology and Life Sciences; Breathing; Bronchial Diseases - physiopathology; Bronchoconstriction; Bronchoscopy; Bronchoscopy - methods; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Dyspnea; Female; Humans; Indicators; Infectious diseases; Internal medicine; Intervention; Lung - physiopathology; Lung cancer; Lungs; Male; Medical imaging; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle Aged; Physiology; Pulmonary functions; Respiration; Respiratory function; Respiratory tract; Sound; Sound intensity; Tomography; Trachea - physiopathology; Japan
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0105327

In patients with bronchial obstruction, pulmonary function tests may not change significantly after intervention. The airflow asynchrony in both lungs due to unilateral bronchial obstruction may be applicable as a physiological indicator. The airflow asynchrony is reflected by the difference in the left and right lung sound development at tidal breathing. To investigate the usefulness of left and right lung asynchrony due to unilateral bronchial obstruction as a physiological indicator for interventional bronchoscopy. Fifty cases with central airway obstruction were classified into three groups: tracheal, bronchial and extensive obstruction. The gap index was defined as the absolute value of the average of gaps between the left and right lung sound intensity peaks for a 12-second duration. Before interventional bronchoscopy, the gap index was significantly higher in the bronchial (p<0.05) and extensive obstruction groups (p<0.05) than in the tracheal group. The gap index in cases with unilateral bronchial obstruction of at least 80% (0.18±0.04 seconds) was significantly higher than in cases with less than 80% obstruction (0.02±0.01 seconds, p<0.05). After intervention for bronchial obstruction, the dyspnea scale (p<0.001) and gap index significantly improved (p<0.05), although no significant improvements were found in spirometric assessments. The responder rates for dyspnea were 79.3% for gap indexes over 0.06 seconds and 55.6% for gap indexes of 0.06 seconds or under. Assessment of left and right lung asynchrony in central airway obstruction with bronchial involvement may provide useful physiological information for interventional bronchoscopy.