Boyles Law to Calculate Lung Volumes

[simondon]

Hi All,
This is a bit long, so only read on if you have too much time on your hands...
Clinically its important to know how large someones lungs are. Asking them to breathe out as much as they can, will not tell us the lung volume, as there is always a residual volume of gas left in the lungs.
One method of measuring Lung Volumes is to ask the patient to sit in a sealed perspex cabin (a body plethysmograph). It uses Boyles law to calculate the lung volume.

At the end of a breath out, the mouth/lungs are occluded: we have a fixed amount of gas and calculate its volume.

p1V1= p2V2

The patient tries to breathe in and out, there is no flow as their mouth is occluded.
Changes in lung pressure are meaured in the mouth
Changes in lung volume are meaured as a volume discplacement in the cabin (or rather the proportional pressure change).

As the patient tries to breathe in against the occluded mouthpiece, we see decreasing pressure in the lungs p1, and increasing lung volume V1
As the patient tried to breathe out against the occluded mouthpiece, we see increasing lung pressure p2 and decreasing lung loume V2.
We can now calculate the volume in the lungs when p=1atm

I hope that makes sense...
My question is, can you think of another way of measuring lung volumes without a perspex cabin, eg by applying a pressure, changing the volume etc? (there are other ways using gas dilutiuon, but I wanted a more mechanical process). If I use a syringe to push a few mls of air into the patients mouth/lungs, the pressure change will not reflect this volume as the patient will react/relax, I do not know what the patient is doing, they may push or pull, the pressure will not refelct the volume change...
Thanks in advance
Simon

 

[AndyW]

Hello Simon,
Thank you for your question. There are indeed other methods for measuring lung volumes without using a body plethysmograph. One common method is called spirometry, which measures the amount of air a person can exhale in one second (FEV1) and the total amount of air they can exhale (FVC). This can give an estimate of lung volumes and can also be used to diagnose respiratory conditions such as asthma or COPD. Another method is called gas dilution, where a gas with a known concentration is inhaled and then exhaled, and the change in concentration is used to calculate lung volumes. This method is often used in conjunction with spirometry for more accurate measurements. Additionally, there are imaging techniques such as X-rays, CT scans, and MRI scans that can also be used to measure lung volumes. Each method has its own advantages and limitations, so it is important to determine which method is most appropriate for the specific situation and patient. I hope this helps!