Entropy Change of Lungs: Determinant of the Static Properties of the Lungs

Abstract

The static properties of the lungs have been explained by energy-change considerations on the elasticity, but this article explains the elasticity of the lungs by entropy-change considerations. Entropy of the individual lobule was defined by application of stochastic geometry on aggregated alveolar polyhedrons. Entropy of the lungs is the result of integrating a number of lobular entropies through the fractal bronchial tree. Entropy of the lungs was thus determined by the individual lobular entropy and the connectivity of the bronchial tree to the lobular bronchioles. Thermody-namic considerations on the static conditions of the pulmonary system composed of the lungs and the chest wall have provided a theoretical approach to understand the subdivisions of lung volume as the entropy-change of lungs. Entropy-change considerations on the elasticity of the lungs have shown that alveolar collapse and subsequent alveolar induration as the primary pathway for the loss of elasticity in the lungs is an acceptable hypothesis.