Current gold star lung diagnostic tools are inadequate for many patients. Nearly all lung pathologies are associated with regional changes in airflow throughout the lungs at onset of disease. Yet the current gold standard diagnostics yield average results over the entire lung – and for loss of total lung function to be measurable, local disease must be advanced. It is critical to detect even subtle functional losses well before lung structure is irreversibly affected by disease – in all lung locations and throughout the respiratory cycle – so that treatment is applied earlier.
