Asthma affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide, and the prevalence of the disease appears to be increasing. One of the most important aspects of asthma is the excessive bronchoconstriction that results in many of the symptoms experienced by asthma sufferers, but the relationship between bronchoconstriction and airway morphology is not clearly established. We present the imaging results of a study involving a segmental allergen challenge given to both allergic asthmatic (n = 12) and allergic non-asthmatic (n = 19) human volunteers. Using OCT, we have imaged and assessed baseline morphology in a right upper lobe (RUL) airway, serving as the control, and a right middle lobe (RML) airway, in which the allergen was to be administered. After a period of 24 hours had elapsed following the administration of the allergen, both airways were again imaged and the response morphology assessed. A number of airway parameters were measured and compared, including epithelial thickness, mucosal thickness and buckling, lumen area, and mucus content. We found that at baseline epithelial thickness, mucosal thickness, and mucosal buckling were greater in AAs than ANAs. We also observed statistically significant increases in these values 24 hours after the allergen had been administered for both the ANA and AA sets. In comparison, the control airway which received a diluent showed no statistically significant change.

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David C. Adams, Alyssa J. Miller, Jasmin A. Holz, Margit V. Szabari, Lida P. Hariri, R. Scott Harris, Jocelyn L. Cho, Daniel L. Hamilos, Andrew D. Luster, Benjamin D. Medoff, and Melissa J. Suter, "Assessing mucus and airway morphology in response to a segmental allergen challenge using OCT (Conference Presentation)," Proc. SPIE 9691, Endoscopic Microscopy XI; and Optical Techniques in Pulmonary Medicine III, 96910Z (Presented at SPIE BiOS: February 13, 2016; Published: 27 April 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2214756.4828146955001.