Covid-19 Lung Modelling

In some cases, COVID-19 pneumonia develops into acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a precursor to respiratory failure. If a patient fails to respond to non-invasive intervention, invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) is required. IMV can save lives but can also lead to longer-term ventilator-induced lung damage. Equally the delay in prescribing a given intervention may lead to further degradation of respiratory health.
 
This work proposes a modelling framework to analyse the lung function of mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients to analyse flow and pressure distributions throughout the lung, using automated segmentation of patient pulmonary computed tomography (CT) scans to improve the practicality of modelling larger datasets. Reduced-order modelling from a three-dimensional lung volume to one-dimensional airway networks and 0D terminal elements allowed predictions of flow, pressure and distension to be made. Regional tissue stiffness and airway resistance were imposed to highlight the impact on flow and pressure distributions, highlighting regions at risk of overdistension during mechanical ventilation.

This work was funded by Welsh Government, WG, (MA/KW/1457/20) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, EPSRC, (EP/V041789/1). The authors are also grateful for valuable discussions with healthcare professionals from Hywel Dda University Health Board, Swansea Bay University Health Board, and Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board providing insight on their experiences with COVID-19 and data access.