Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Avalanches and power-law behaviour in lung inflation

Abstract

WHEN lungs are emptied during exhalation, peripheral airways close up1. For people with lung disease, they may not reopen for a significant portion of inhalation, impairing gas exchange2,3. A knowledge of the mechanisms that govern reinflation of collapsed regions of lungs is therefore central to the development of ventilation strategies for combating respiratory problems. Here we report measurements of the terminal airway resistance, Rt , during the opening of isolated dog lungs. When inflated by a constant flow, Rt decreases in discrete jumps. We find that the probability distribution of the sizes of the jumps and of the time intervals between them exhibit power-law behaviour over two decades. We develop a model of the inflation process in which 'avalanches' of airway openings are seen—with power-law distributions of both the size of avalanches and the time intervals between them—which agree quantitatively with those seen experimentally, and are reminiscent of the power-law behaviour observed for self-organized critical systems4. Thus power-law distributions, arising from avalanches associated with threshold phenomena propagating down a branching tree structure, appear to govern the recruitment of terminal airspaces.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Hughes, J. M. B., Rosenzweig, D. Y. & Kivitz, P. B. J. appl. Physiol. 29, 340–344 (1970).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Engel, L. A., Grassino, A. & Anthonisen, N. R. J. appl. Physiol. 38, 1117–1125 (1975).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Crawford, A. B. H., Cotton, D. J., Paiva, M. & Engel, L. A. J. appl. Physiol. 66, 2511–2515 (1989).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Bak, P., Chen, K. & Creutz, M. Nature 342, 780–783 (1989).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Davey, B. L. K. & Bates, J. H. T. Resp. Physiol. 91, 165–182 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Peták, F., Hantos, Z., Adamicza, A., Otis, D. R. & Daróczy, B. Eur. Respir. J. 6, 403S (1993).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Vicsek, T. Fractal Growth Phenomena 2nd edn (World Scientific, Singapore, 1992).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  8. Macklem, P. T., Proctor, D. F. & Hogg, J. C. Resp. Physiol. 8, 191–201 (1970).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Gaver, D. P., Samsel, R. W. & Solway J. J. appl. Physiol. 69, 74–85 (1990).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Bak, P. & Creutz, M. in Fractals in Science. (eds Bunde, A. & Havlin, S.) (Springer, Berlin, 1994).

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  11. West, B. J. & Shlesinger, M. F. Am. Scient. 78, 40–48 (1990).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Shlesinger, M. F. & West, B. J. Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 2106–2109 (1991).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. West, B. J. Fractal Physiology and Chaos in Medicine (World Scientific, Singapore, 1990).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  14. Horsfield, K., Kemp, W. & Phillips, S. J. appl. Physiol. 52, 21–26 (1982).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Lambert, R. K., Wilson, T. A., Hyatt, R. E. & Rodart, J. R. J. appl. Physiol. 52, 44–56 (1982).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Salazar, E. & Knowles, J. H. J. appl. Physiol. 19, 97–104 (1964).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Suki, B., Barabási, AL., Hantos, Z. et al. Avalanches and power-law behaviour in lung inflation. Nature 368, 615–618 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/368615a0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/368615a0

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing