Helium–oxygen mixture model for particle transport in CT-based upper airways

Islam, Mohammad S., Gu, YuanTong, Farkas, Arpad, Paul, Gunther, and Saha, Suvash C. (2020) Helium–oxygen mixture model for particle transport in CT-based upper airways. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17 (10). 3574.

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Abstract

The knowledge of respiratory particle transport in the extra-thoracic pathways is essential for the estimation of lung health-risk and optimization of targeted drug delivery. The published literature reports that a significant fraction of the inhaled aerosol particles are deposited in the upper airways, and available inhalers can deliver only a small amount of drug particles to the deeper airways. To improve the targeted drug delivery effciency to the lungs, it is important to reduce the drug particle deposition in the upper airways. This study aims to minimize the unwanted aerosol particle deposition in the upper airways by employing a gas mixture model for the aerosol particle transport within the upper airways. A helium–oxygen (heliox) mixture (80% helium and 20% oxygen) model is developed for the airflow and particle transport as the heliox mixture is less dense than air. The mouth–throat and upper airway geometry are extracted from CT-scan images. Finite volume based ANSYS Fluent (19.2) solver is used to simulate the airflow and particle transport in the upper airways. Tecplot software and MATLAB code are employed for the airflow and particle post-processing. The simulation results show that turbulence intensity for heliox breathing is lower than in the case of air-breathing. The less turbulent heliox breathing eventually reduces the deposition effciency (DE) at the upper airways than the air-breathing. The present study, along with additional patient-specific investigation, could improve the understanding of particle transport in upper airways, which may also increase the effciency of aerosol drug delivery.

Item ID: 63230
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1660-4601
Keywords: targeted drug delivery; helium–oxygen mixture; particle transport; particle deposition; mouth–throat model
Copyright Information: © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open accessarticle distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Funders: University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), BlueSky
Projects and Grants: UTS PR019-8377, BlueSky-2232433
Date Deposited: 15 Jul 2020 01:32
FoR Codes: 46 INFORMATION AND COMPUTING SCIENCES > 4602 Artificial intelligence > 460207 Modelling and simulation @ 34%
32 BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICAL SCIENCES > 3201 Cardiovascular medicine and haematology > 320103 Respiratory diseases @ 33%
32 BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICAL SCIENCES > 3208 Medical physiology > 320803 Systems physiology @ 33%
SEO Codes: 97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970111 Expanding Knowledge in the Medical and Health Sciences @ 50%
92 HEALTH > 9201 Clinical Health (Organs, Diseases and Abnormal Conditions) > 920115 Respiratory System and Diseases (incl. Asthma) @ 50%
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