Correlation of nasal geometry with aerosol deposition in human volunteers

Technical Report · Tue Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:54792

Cheng, Yung-Seng; Simpson, S Q ^[1]; Cheng, Kuo-His; Swift, D L ^[2]; Yeh, Hsu-Chi; Guilmette, R A

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1. Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2. Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States)

The nasal airways act as the first filter in the respiratory tract to remove very large or small particles, that would otherwise penetrate to the lower airways. Aerosol deposition data obtained with human volunteers vary considerably under comparable experimental conditions. Reasons for the intersubject variations have been frequently attributed to the geometry of the nasal passages. Because there is no direct proof of this hypothesis, nasal deposition of ultrafine particles in human volunteers has been studied in our laboratory. Preliminary results obtained with four adult volunteers also vary considerably between subjects. The purpose of this part of the study was to establish a theoretical equation relating diffusional deposition in nasal airways to the geometrical dimensions of the individual nasal airways. This relationship was then applied to the experimental deposition data and measurement of airway morphometry for correlation.

• Research Organization: Lovelace Biomedical and Environmental Research Inst., Albuquerque, NM (United States). Inhalation Toxicology Research Inst.
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76EV01013
• OSTI ID: 54792
• Report Number(s): ITRI--144; ON: DE95007526
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
55 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
BASIC STUDIES
56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
AEROSOLS
DIFFUSION
FILTERS
GEOMETRY
NOSE
PARTICLES
PROGRESS REPORT
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
RETENTION