Abstract
The static properties of the lungs have been explained by energy-change considerations on the elasticity, but this article explains the elasticity of the lungs by entropy-change considerations. Entropy of the individual lobule was defined by application of stochastic geometry on aggregated alveolar polyhedrons. Entropy of the lungs is the result of integrating a number of lobular entropies through the fractal bronchial tree. Entropy of the lungs was thus determined by the individual lobular entropy and the connectivity of the bronchial tree to the lobular bronchioles. Thermody-namic considerations on the static conditions of the pulmonary system composed of the lungs and the chest wall have provided a theoretical approach to understand the subdivisions of lung volume as the entropy-change of lungs. Entropy-change considerations on the elasticity of the lungs have shown that alveolar collapse and subsequent alveolar induration as the primary pathway for the loss of elasticity in the lungs is an acceptable hypothesis.
Highlights
From a physical viewpoint, the lung can be described as an elastic body
In metals or other usual materials, the atomic lattice of a usual material changes size and shape when external forces are applied or when energy is added to the material
Their primary study protocol is that starting from some initial configuration of the network, and the total energy is calculated by minimizing the elastic energy of the springs array, which is a numerical technique mimicking the gradual cooling of atoms in metal or glass
Summary
The lung can be described as an elastic body. Elasticity is the property of matter that causes matter to return to its resting size after prior stretching by an external force. Lutz et al have suggested that surfactant inactivation leading to alveolar collapse and subsequent collapse induration might be the primary pathway for loss of lung function in human IPF. This observation cannot be explained by the energy change consideration because there is no change in the components of the elastic network of the lung skeleton. All work done on the rubber is “released” and appears immediately in the polymer as thermal energy [4] This is an important clue that the elastic ability of the lung to work depends on entropy-change considerations. The author of this paper provides a proposal to explain that the elastic property of the lung as the entropy-change of alveoli in the pulmonary parenchyma integrated into the whole lung through lobular structures with a fractal bronchial tree and that the entropy of the lung would determine the subdivisions of lung volume as the thermal equilibrium as well
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