Measurements of total aerosol deposition in intrathoracic conducting airway replicas of children

Abstract

The objective of this research was to obtain a correlation that quantitatively predicts micrometer-sized aerosol particle deposition in the upper conducting airways (trachea to generation 3) of children. Experiments were conducted using steady inhalation air flow rates to measure the deposition of monodisperse particles with diameters of 3.5–5.5μm in replicas of the upper tracheobronchial airways of 11 children aged 2–8 years. The total deposition of particles was measured in each replica using gravimetry. Validation was performed by also measuring deposition in five adult replicas and the Alberta Idealized Throat and comparing with existing published data. Although there is considerable intersubject variability in our data, the empirical correlation of Chan & Lippmann (1980) was found to predict total deposition reasonably well in all of our adult and child replicas.