Spatial considerations in oscillation mechanics of the lung.

This paper deals with the role of serial and parallel inhomogeneity in the study of oscillation mechanics of the lung. Contrasts of lumped and distributed parameter models elucidate the role of wavelength compared with structure length in modeling spatial inhomogeneity. The application of self-consistency theory incorporates both serial and parallel inhomogeneities in explicitly described branching networks, and encompasses within an efficient computational scheme all previously described models of oscillatory lung response. As examples, this theory is employed to elucidate the sources of frequency dependence of airway resistance below 10 Hz and the nature of transpulmonary sound transmission up to 5 kHz.