The relationship between airway size and lung size.

To investigate the association between airway size and lung size, the relationships between upstream conductance (reflecting airway size) and vital capacity (reflecting lung size) was explored in 22 male and 15 female subjects free of respiratory disease. The size-corrected maximal flows and size-corrected upstream conductances were not significantly correlated with vital capacity in males or females suggesting an association between lung and airway size. This was corroborated by other data from the literature analysed in a similar manner. The data further suggested that for a given lung size, the airways of females were on average as large or larger than those of males.