Researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) have used a patient-specific 3D airway model to show that respiratory therapy doesn’t affect all parts of the airway equally and that there’s “potential to support the design of better devices and personalised treatment” for respiratory patients.
Published in Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology, the study used CT-derived modelling to simulate how “continuous high-frequency oscillation therapy (CHFO)” behaves inside the human airway.
Lead author Dr Suvash C. Saha, Senior Lecturer in the UTS School of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, says the study gives one of the clearest pictures yet of how breathing therapy moves through the human airway.
“Continuous high-frequency oscillation therapy (CHFO) is used clinically to support airway clearance and lung expansion, yet the way its oscillatory pressure is transmitted through the human conducting airways has remained poorly measured,” says Dr Saha.
“Our study helps fill that gap by mapping how CHFO reshapes pressure, wall shear stress and wall-normal loading throughout the conducting airway tree under both standard and high-pressure settings.”
The findings show that different parts of the airway, especially around the throat and upper airway, experience different levels of pressure and friction, so device settings may need to be chosen more carefully for different patients and clinical goals.
“We found that some areas, especially around the throat and voice box, experience much stronger pressure and friction than others, while larger upper-airway regions carry more of the overall force,” says Dr Saha.
“Turning the therapy up to a higher-pressure setting increases the strength of the support, but it does not change where the main effects happen.
“The airway anatomy itself plays a dominant role in fixing where mechanical loading is concentrated. Even when the therapy setting changes, those key anatomical hot spots remain.
“We need a greater understanding of where and how the therapy acts to help improve safety, comfort and effectiveness in the future.
“It can eventually support the design of better devices and treatment settings.”
Dr Saha believes that combining advanced engineering and medical research has the potential to improve healthcare, such as CHFO.
“A computer model based on real human anatomy can reveal things that are very difficult to measure directly in patients, helping doctors and researchers make more informed decisions.
“This work supports the need for more evidence-based design and testing of respiratory support devices, including patient-specific modelling where possible.
“It also points to the value of future clinical guidelines that consider not just whether a therapy is used, but how different settings may affect different parts of the airway,” says Dr Saha.