Effect of the transpulmonary pressure on the lungs’ vibroacoustic response: a first numerical perspective

In the high-stakes environment of intensive care units (ICUs), managing transpulmonary pressure is crucial for providing breathing assistance to intubated patients, particularly when combining this intervention with respiratory therapy, such as high-frequency chest compression (HFCC). Despite the complexity of lung tissues, a computed tomography-based finite element model (CT-FEM), guided by Biot's theory, can be employed to numerically predict their vibroacoustic behavior at low frequencies, where the properties of the lungs align with the theory's principles. In this work, one aims to develop an analytical model of the lungs for two different levels of transpulmonary pressure-10 cm H₂O (inflated lungs) and 20 cm H₂O (healthy lungs)-to examine the poroviscoelastic behavior of the lungs and evaluate the generated analytical model using a CT-FEM of the human thorax like a digital twin of the human thorax. Biot's theory was utilized to predict the complex-valued shear wave speed, as well as the fast and slow compression wave speeds, across a frequency range between 5 and 100 Hz. The analytically computed values were tested using a previously validated CT-FEM of the human thorax to compare respiratory therapy outcomes for intubated patients under different transpulmonary pressure levels. Besides the frequency response function of the thorax, the kinetic energy density and the strain energy density were compared for these pressure levels. The CT-FEM demonstrated that all peak points fall within the range of 20-45 Hz; therefore, this range might be considered in ICUs settings. Kinetic energy density was nearly 2.2 times higher, and strain energy density was 1.46-1.26 times higher at the first and last peaks, respectively; therefore, inflated lungs experienced greater effects than healthy ones under the same respiratory therapy conditions. Overall, this study highlights how different transpulmonary pressures affect HFCC therapy, offering insights into gentle and effective conditions for intubated patients in ICUs while revealing the lungs' 3D responses by integrating analytically predicted shear wave speed, fast and slow compression wave speeds.