Epidemiology data show that mortality rates for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD) patients increase with an increase in concentration of ambient particulate matter ( PM) . This is not seen for normal subjects. Therefore, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA) has identified COPD patients as a susceptible subpopulation to be considered in regulatory standards. In the present study, a computer model was used to calculate deposition fractions of PM within the lungs of COPD

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... ents. The morphology of COPD lungs was characterized by two distinct components: obstruction of airways ( chronic bronchitis component), and degeneration of alveolar structure ( emphysema component) . The chronic bronchitis component was modeled by reducing airway diameters using airway resistance measurements in vivo, and the emphysema component was 705