AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Intersubject Variability in Regional Deposition of Aerosols in Nasal Airways of Children 2-6 Years Old
RYAN MEEKINS, Gregory Vorona, Ammie White, Michael Hindle, Laleh Golshahi, Virginia Commonwealth University
Abstract Number: 732 Working Group: Health Related Aerosols
Abstract Deposition of aerosols in the nasal airways reduces the dose of therapeutics reaching the lungs, but if it could be controlled is beneficial for treatment of nasal disorders such as sinusitis as well as systemic delivery for nose-to-brain drug delivery. Current pediatric nasal drug delivery methods for children 2-6 years old of age, who are not old enough to comfortably hold a mouthpiece for oral delivery have low efficacy and the delivered dose is highly variable due to inter/intrasubject variability among children. Previously Golshahi et al (JAS, 42 , 2011, 474–488) have proposed correlations to predict total deposition in the extrathoracic airways of ten children 4-14 years old. Our current in vitro study involves developing tools to quantify variation of deposition in anterior, turbinate, and posterior regions of children’s airways. We have currently produced 5 nasal airway models of children 2 to 6 years old (three normal and two congested airways). These airway models were made by segmenting nasal airways from archived neck CT scans from VCU’s Department of Radiology. The models also consist of face for mask attachment. These airways were 3D printed in ABS plastic at a resolution of 100 microns and have currently been verified to give appropriate pressure drops (0.56-0.92 in/H2O) at a steady flow rate of 10 lpm. Our experimental setup includes a Pari SinuStar aerosol delivery system for the generation of aerosol, delivered to our 3D printed models through a Pari pediatric face mask. An INGMAR MEDICAL ASL 5000 Breathing Simulator simulates appropriate pediatric breathing patterns. We use high performance liquid chromatography to quantify deposition in three different regions of each airway model. The deposition data and the airway dimensions could be linked together to develop a correlation for the prediction of regional nasal deposition in children aged 2 to 6 years old.