Regional aerosol deposition in human upper airways (open access)

Regional aerosol deposition in human upper airways

During the current report experimental studies of upper respiratory deposition of radon progeny aerosols and stimulant aerosols were carried out in replicate casts of nasal and oral passages of adults and children. Additionally, preliminary studies of nasal passage deposition of unattached Po{sup 218} particles was carried out in four human subjects. Data on nasal inspiratory deposition in replicate models of adults and infants from three collaborating laboratories were compared and a best-fit curve of deposition efficiency for both attached and unattached particles was obtained, showing excellent inter-laboratory agreement. This curve demonstrates that nasal inspiratory deposition of radon progeny is weakly dependent upon flow rate over physiologically realistic ranges of flow, does not show a significant age effect, and is relatively independent of nasal passage dimensions for a given age range. Improved replicate models of the human adult oral passage extending to the mid-trachea were constructed for medium and higher flow mouth breathing states; these models were used to assess the deposition of unattached Po{sup 218} particles during oronasal breathing in the oral passage and demonstrated lower deposition efficiency than the nasal passage. Measurements of both Po{sup 218} particle and attached fraction particle size deposition were performed in replicate nasal passage …
Date: November 1, 1991
Creator: Swift, David L.
System: The UNT Digital Library