In this study, we report the development and accuracy of a direct technique to measure airway calibre using a superfine fibreoptic bronchoscope. Ten mongrel dogs were anaesthetized with pentobarbitone and the trachea intubated with a tracheal tube; the small lumen of the tube allowed passage of a superfine fibreoptic bronchoscope (od 2.2 mm). Bronchial cross-sectional area and airway pressure w...

Airway remodelling, which is manifested by thickening of bronchial wall, is an important causative factor of bronchial hyper-responsiveness in asthma. The pathophysiological mechanism of airway remodelling is not clear. In the present study we evaluated the relationship between nitric oxide (NO) generation and airway wall thickening in patients with chronic asthma. As a marker of NO production,...

Airway remodeling is a term used to collectively indicate bronchial structural changes that may lead to irreversible airflow obstruction and progressive decline in lung function in asthmatic patients. Bronchial myofibroblasts contribute to airway remodeling by producing collagenous proteins in the subepithelial zone and by increasing the density of contractile cells in the bronchial wall. A sub...

Eosinophilic inflammation and remodeling of the airways including subepithelial fibrosis and myofibroblast hyperplasia are characteristic pathological findings of bronchial asthma. Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a critical role in airway remodelling. In this study, we hypothesized that infiltrating eosinophils promote airway remodelling in bronchial asthma. To demonstrate this...

According to the most recent definition, bronchial asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways associated with reversible airway obstruction and increased airway responsiveness to a variety of stimuli. An intuitive inference from this definition is that a causal relationship may exist between airway inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness. Along this line of reasoning, most of ...

Structural components of the airway wall may act to load airway smooth muscle and restrict airway narrowing. In this study, the effect of load on airway narrowing was investigated in pig isolated bronchial segments. In some bronchi, pieces of cartilage were removed by careful dissection. Airway narrowing was produced by maximum electrical field stimulation. An endoscope was used to record lumen...

BACKGROUND Bronchial asthma is a chronic respiratory disorder characterized by airway inflammation, airway hyperresponsiveness, and periodic reversible airway obstruction. Subtype 2 helperT cell (T(H)2) cytokines play an important role in the development of allergic airway inflammation in patients with bronchial asthma. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP...

Some lung diseases are related to bronchial airway structures and morphology. Although airway segmentation from chest CT volumes is an important task in the computer-aided diagnosis and surgery assistance systems for the chest, complete 3-D airway structure segmentation is a quite challenging task due to its complex tree-like structure. In this paper, we propose a new airway segmentation method...

The bronchial mucosa, which consists of the airway epithelium and basement membrane, forms folds along the inner lumen of the airway wall when airway lumen size decreases during bronchoconstriction or at low lung volumes (10, 12). Epithelial folding progressively diminishes as the airway lumen expands during the distension of the lungs (12). Some years ago, James and colleagues (4, 5) described...