eo gg oe: 7 4 a ry Nuclcur Medicine Technology and Other Health Applications RX¥-O1-03-(£) ra . . Early Detection and Localization of Project Title: Pulmonary Impainonent 18. Expected Results in FY 1975: (Cont'd) apome . The daca, obtained in the form of ratios of closure volume to vital capacity for each subject, will be stored on computer tape and used to correlate airway closure with age, sex, and other vital statistics such as height, ‘weight, and hiscory, including the relationship of the subject to differenc forms of atmospheric pollution and occupational exposures. Subsequent screening of large groups of people, will compare their closing volumes with the reference value for healthy people, Premature closure is indica- ‘ tive of small airway abnormalities, . A simple and relatively inexpensive package of cquipment will be built with assistance from the BNL Instrumentation Division, to provide for the automatic introduction of the tracer and the evaluation of the results’ The equipment will: (1) measure the volume of gas inspired and expired 7 , f from the lungs with a spirometer, (2) measure the concentration of helium in the expirate with a mass spectrometer, and (3) provide for semi-automatic data acquisition and storage on industry-compatible incremental magnetic tape. Analysis of the data would have to be performed on a remote computer. This system of data acquisition would allow an operator to store the singlebreath helium washout curve as 1000 sampled points with 8-bits (about 1/4%) resolution. The stored data can be immediately displayed on a Display Unit, and, if satisfactory, the data and appropriate heading identification can be stored on incremental magnetic tape for future analysis, If the curve is ; : not satisfactory, the operator can discard the data and generate a new set of data, recording only the satisfactory curve on magnetic tape. Computer programs will be written and improvements in analyzing and storing the patient data made. The goal is to store all information on tapes, analyze it by computer operation, and store it for future reference and retrieval. Other gases, such as hydrogen, nitrogen, neon, argon, sulfur hexafluoride, and xenon, will be introduced -- as stable or radioactive tracers -individually or in combination with helium, to compare their relative sensitivity and effectiveness with thac of helium, and to detcrmine if they offer an advantage over the use of helium alone. The first such gas to be studied will se xenon 127, proposed: for use at BNL in related pulmonary ventilation~g@mefusion studies, = we Curie @iliitities of xenon 127 will be prepared in the BLIP, a unique accelerator facility, for daily use and made available for widespread clinical evaluation at BNL and at the collaborating outside hospitals. Inasmuch as this program is regarded as a continuing one thac does not commence until FY 1975, it may be os ropriate to cite here the direction that the work is expected to take ocyond FY 1975. The screening of healthy people to obtain reference data on normal lung closure volumes and the £479250 (See Continuation Sheet) . .