Airway luminal area and the resistive work of breathing during exercise in healthy young females and males

We examined the relationship between the work of breathing (W b ) during exercise and in vivo measures of airway size in healthy females and males. We hypothesized that sex-differences in airway luminal area (Ai) would explain the larger resistive W b during exercise in females. Healthy participants (n=11 females and n=11 males; 19-30 y) completed a cycle exercise test to exhaustion where W b was assessed using an esophageal balloon catheter. On a separate day, participants underwent a bronchoscopy procedure for optical coherence tomography measures of airways in the left (n=3) and right (n=4) lung. In ...