(Dr. Peter Rogers, advisor)

"Use of Hydro-Acoustic Therapy in the Treatment of Patients with Cystic Fibrosis"

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the experimental design, data analysis procedure, Institutional Review Board Approval and methodology, in the evaluation of a new Cystic Fibrosis (CF) treatment, which involves the use of underwater acoustics to stimulate the lungs of Cystic Fibrosis patients who have respiratory difficulty.  The new treatment termed Hydro-Acoustic Therapy, or simply HAT, is expected to be an improvement on existing forms of chest physiotherapy either manual such as chest percussion, or mechanical such as High Frequency Chest Compression (use of an oscillating pressure vest to stimulate the chest).  HAT is expected to have improved therapeutic value since underwater, the lung is directly stimulated uniformly with acoustic pressure throughout its whole entirety.  Since the surrounding body mass around the lung is primarily composed of water, the underwater environment of this therapy would ensure a high transmission of therapeutic signals to the diseased lung.  Increased lung function in CF test patients is expected due to the enhancement of the primary mucus transfer mechanism in the lung.  Underwater acoustic exposure amplitude and frequency will be based on the measurement of individual patient frequency response to underwater low frequency sound.  This enhancement of lung function due to HAT will be evaluated.  As a side objective the feasibility of using measured lung frequency response to determine the disease state of CF lungs will be tested.