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ANALYSIS OF FLOW THROUGH A HUMAN ORAL MODEL FOR USE IN INHALATION TOXICOLOGY AND AEROSOL THERAPY PROTOCOLS
Citation:
Martonen, T B., R. T. Burton, AND K K. Isaacs. ANALYSIS OF FLOW THROUGH A HUMAN ORAL MODEL FOR USE IN INHALATION TOXICOLOGY AND AEROSOL THERAPY PROTOCOLS. Presented at International Society for Aerosols in Medicine, 2003 International Congress, United Kingdom, July 14-18, 2003.
Description:
RATIONALE
Understanding the transport and deposition of inhaled aerosols is of fundamental importance to inhalation toxicology and aerosol therapy. Herein, we focus on the development of a computer based oral morphology and related computational fluid dynamics (CFD) studies.
METHODS
To describe the oral region, morphometric data from the literature were employed. Using Maya Unlimited, an animation software package, coronal-section images were used to create initial spline curves, which served as the foundation of a non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) surface representing the 3D morphology.
RESULTS
To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first medical application of the software (Maya Unlimited). We have demonstrated that the code can be employed to construct 3D biological structures and perform 3D CFD simulations of aerosols from metered dose inhalers (MDIs).
CONCLUSIONS
The software 1) can generate physiologically realistic oral structures, 2) has great potential for use in the medical arena because it requires neither advanced technical training nor significant peripheral (e.g. hardware) support, 3) allows for the introduction of medical devices (e.g. MDIs) into simulations, and 4) predicts CFD patterns consistent with experimental observations.
DISCLAIMER: This is an abstract of a proposed presentation and does not necessarily reflect EPA policy.