Linear rheology as a potential monitoring tool for sputum in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

Linear rheology as a potential monitoring tool for sputum in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Biorheology. 2017 Dec 20;: Authors: Nettle CJ, Jenkins L, Curtis D, Badiei N, Lewis K, Williams PR, Daniels DR Abstract Sputum samples from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients were investigated using rheology, simple mathematical modelling and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The samples were all collected from patients within two days of their admission to Prince Philip Hospital due to an exacerbation of their COPD. Oscillatory and creep rheological techniques were used to measure changes in viscoelastic properties at different frequencies over time, and COPD sputum was observed to behave as a viscoelastic solid at all frequencies studied. Comparing the rheology of exacerbated COPD sputum with healthy sputum (not diagnosed with a respiratory disease) revealed significant differences in response to oscillatory shear and creep-recovery experiments, which highlights the potential clinical benefits of better understanding sputum viscoelasticity. A common power law model G(t)=G0(tτ0)-m was successfully fitted to experimental rheology data over the range of frequencies studied. A comparison was made between clinical data and the power law index m obtained from rheology, which suggests that an important possible future application of this work is as a potential biomarker for COPD severity. P...
Source: Biorheology - Category: Biochemistry Tags: Biorheology Source Type: research