Imaging Study of the Lungs During an Allergic Asthma Attack

Asthma is a disease of rapidly increasing incidence that already affects more than 17 million people in the United States alone. It is of major importance to understand the mechanisms responsible for underlying mechanical and physiological changes that occur during asthma exacerbations. The effect of asthma on the pulmonary vasculature is virtually unknown. It has long been known that areas of severely reduced airflow occur in asthma and contribute significantly to the impairment of gas exchange in this disease. However, the extent to which local blood flow changes during an asthmatic attack is unclear. This proposal is designed to evaluate the relevance of potential mechanisms responsible for the blood flow defects seen in our Positron Emission Tomography studies of subjects with asthma and identify factors modifying that perfusion distribution. With this knowledge, it is hoped that a more focused basic research is motivated to understand the fundamental mechanisms behind these processes ultimately targeted to improved asthma therapy. Comparing these measures in healthy subjects and asthmatics patients may lead to methods to improve patient care.