Comprehensive Experimental and Numerical Studies of Pharmaceutical Aerosol Devices

加压计量吸入器（pmdi）或“喷雾器”、干粉吸入器（DPIs）和雾化器通常用于治疗肺部疾病，如哮喘和支气管炎。来自肺脏协会的统计数据表明，高达约10%的人口可能在其部分生命中患有需要治疗的呼吸系统疾病。吸入器装置产生非常复杂的湍流，理想的药物输送仍然是一个具有挑战性的工程问题。pmdi产生的大量气溶胶药物在到达目标（或肺部）之前沉积并丢失在上呼吸道（口-喉-气管）的壁上，导致单次剂量的药物损失相当大（Fink, 2000）。附加间隔器（通常是圆柱形腔）是附着在pmdi上的装置，可以增加输送到肺部的药物总量。除了给药到肺部之外，使用药用气雾剂的鼻腔给药正在成为治疗许多疾病的重要替代方法，如糖尿病（胰岛素给药）、骨质疏松症，甚至偏头痛。由于鼻腔的复杂性和区域药物吸收能力的差异，以及药物性质（配方和气溶胶大小分布特征）和流体流动结构的影响，理想的鼻腔给药仍然是一个具有挑战性的问题。通过与渥太华市民医院的合作，我们一直在开发一种新的、理想的鼻腔几何形状，这是制药领域用作标准（用于气溶胶沉积测量）的潜在候选物。******尽管吸入药物的重要性和日益增长的兴趣，药物气溶胶装置的研究和发展更多地集中在治疗效果上。更有效的吸入装置将减少副作用（如肌肉痉挛和喉咙痛），提高患者的依从性，从而缩短治疗时间和费用。目前提出的研究旨在更好地了解气溶胶给药系统（包括肺和鼻）的物理特性，并通过正在进行的气溶胶在设备内部(主要是在胸外气道（鼻-口-喉）的产生、运输和沉积的综合研究，改善吸入装置的性能，以最大限度地提高药物递送。利用实验分析（气溶胶沉积和流体流动测量）和计算流体动力学（CFD）。作者还希望使用类似的方法，扩大研究范围，以理解（运输和胸外沉积机制）和表征空气传播的过敏诱因，重点是PM2.5（直径小于2.5微米的颗粒物），特别是纳米颗粒

Pressurized metered-dose inhalers (pMDIs) or “puffers”, dry powder inhalers (DPIs), and nebulizers are normally used in the treatment of lung diseases, such as asthma and bronchitis. Statistics from Lung Associations indicate that up to approximately 10% of the population may suffer from respiratory illnesses requiring treatment in part of their lives. Inhaler devices produce very complex turbulent flows and ideal medication delivery remains a challenging engineering problem. Considerable amounts of aerosol medication generated from the pMDIs are deposited and lost on the walls of the upper airways (mouth-throat-trachea) before reaching the target (or the lungs), resulting in considerable medication losses from a single dosage (Fink, 2000). Add-on spacers (normally cylindrical chambers) are devices that are attached to the pMDIs and will enhance the total amount of medication delivered to the lungs.***Besides medication delivery to the lungs, nasal drug delivery using pharmaceutical aerosols is emerging as an important alternative for treating many conditions such as diabetes (insulin delivery), osteoporosis, and even migraine headaches. Due to complexity of the nasal cavity and differences in regional medication absorptiveness, which is also affected by the medication properties (formulation and aerosol size distribution characteristics) and fluid flow structures, the ideal nasal drug delivery remains a challenging problem. In collaboration with the Ottawa Civic Hospital, we have been developing a novel and idealized nasal cavity geometry, which is a potential candidate to be used as a standard (for aerosol deposition measurements) in the pharmaceutical field.******Despite the importance and growing interest in inhaled medications, research and development of pharmaceutical aerosol devices have focused more on therapeutical effectiveness. More efficient inhalation devices will reduce side effects (like muscle cramps and sore throat) and improve patients' compliance, thus reducing duration and costs of treatment. The present proposed research aims at the better understanding of the physics involved in aerosol drug delivery systems (both lung and nasal) and the improvement of the performance of inhalation devices in terms of maximizing medication delivery, through ongoing comprehensive studies of aerosol generation, transport, and deposition inside devices themselves and mainly in extra-thoracic airways (nose-mouth-throat), using experimental analysis (aerosol deposition and fluid flow measurements) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The author also wishes to use similar approaches and expand the investigations towards the understanding (transport and extra-thoracic deposition mechanisms) and characterization of airborne allergic triggers with a focus on PM2.5 (particulate matter with diameter smaller than 2.5 microns), especially nanoparticles.**