Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol 80, Issue 1 351-356, Copyright © 1996 by American Physiological Society

ARTICLES

On-line laser-photometric monitoring of aerosol deposition in ventilated rabbit lungs

T. Schmehl, J. Gebhart, H. Schutte, A. Scharmann and W. Seeger
Department of Internal Medicine, Justus-Liebig University, Giessen, Germany.

A photometric technique was developed for on-line measurement of aerosol deposition in isolated, ventilated, and perfused rabbit lungs. A jet nebulizer was used for aerosolization of saline (hygroscopic particles) and di(2-ethylhexyl) sebacate (nonhygroscopic particles). Aerosol concentration (laser photometer, constructed for measurements in rabbit lungs) and flow rate (commercial pneumotachograph) were continuously monitored at the inlet of the tracheal cannula. Computer-assisted data processing allowed the breath-by-breath calculation of inhaled and exhaled aerosol mass, thus providing the deposition fraction. With the use of hygroscopic particles, however, this approach was hampered by the humidity-induced particle growth in the airways, leading to an overestimation of the aerosol concentration in exhaled air. This effect was corrected by an algorithm using a "particle growth factor" derived breath by breath from the photometer signal. To test the reliability of this approach, saline particles carrying technetium-99m label were aerosolized into rabbit lungs with the use of various ventilator settings, and the aerosol deposition was assessed in parallel by photometry and by radioactivity detection over the lung and over a trap in the exhaled-air circuit. Superimposable curves of cumulative aerosol deposition, with changes in kinetics dependent on the ventilator mode, were obtained. For a given ventilator setting, absolute values of the deposition fraction were 0.32 +/- 0.04 (radiotracer quantification) and 0.36 +/- 0.04 (photometry; means +/- SD; n = 4). We conclude that the presented laser-photometric technique allows reliable on-line monitoring of the deposition of both nonhygroscopic and hygroscopic aerosol particles in ventilated lungs.

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