AAAR 33rd Annual Conference
October 20 - October 24, 2014
Rosen Shingle Creek
Orlando, Florida, USA
Abstract View
Internal Airway Percussion (IAP) for Lung Infection Diagnostics
NIMA AFSHAR-MOHAJER, Chang-Yu Wu, Hsiu-Wen Tsai, Erin Silverman, Paul Davenport, Satyanarayan Hegde, University of Florida
Abstract Number: 9 Working Group: Health Related Aerosols
Abstract There is a great need for a direct but non-invasive sampling of aerosolized particles originating in the lungs, for the purpose of diagnosis of lung infections. In this study, a novel technique of Internal Airway Percussion (IAP) involving the transmission of acoustic sound waves into the lower respiratory tract, for effective vibration of the lung, was developed and optimized. Acoustic waves produced by IAP vibrate both the upper and lower respiratory tracts, thus increasing the release of aerosolized particles into the exhaled breath (EB). The IAP device consists of two separate channels: the inhalation channel which is connected to a sound wave generator to produce and deliver sound waves directly into the lungs, and the exhalation channel which is connected to a sterile Tedlar® bag for storing EB-containing aerosolized particles for concentration and particle size distribution analysis using an Aerodynamic Particle Sizer (APS). IAP optimization was conducted through statistical analysis of the obtained results at four different sound frequencies (15, 30, 60 and 100 Hz), and three different intensities (0.75, 1.5 and 3 cm H$_2O) on 24 healthy adult participants.
Preliminary results at 15 Hz indicated an average increase in concentration of the aerosolized particles by 24%. An increase in (1) average particle size and (2) particle concentration was observed with increases in the frequency of the vibration delivered by the IAP device, at a constant intensity. In all cases, IAP was well tolerated and no adverse side effects were reported. Full results of this experiment will be presented at the conference.