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TOTAL AND REGIONAL LUNG DOSE OF INHALED ULTRAFINE PARTICLES IN HEALTH AND DISEASE
Impact/Purpose:
Information on the deposition dose in lungs for ultrafine particles is lacking. Scuh information would be useful to identify potential health risks and to understand the works of mechanisms. This study provides important dose information for ultrafine particles that can be used to interpret the results from toxicology and epidemiology studies.
Description:
This record is closed and superseded by record 72390 - Ultrafine particles are ubiquitous in polluted urban air. Although mass fraction of ultrafine particles in ambient particulate matter (PM) may be small, its presence in a great number has been a source of concern for potential health hazard. The precise mechanisms by which ultrafine particles may cause adverse health effects are not known. However, specific dose information is useful to identify potential health risk and to understand the works of mechanisms. In this study, detailed regional deposition dose of inhaled ultrafine particles (0.04, 0.06, 0.08 and 0.1 micron) was measured in normal subjects for both young (20 - 40 years) and old ( > 60 years) age groups. The effects of gender was also investigated in each subject group. A novel serial bolus delivery method was used to measure local deposition dose in 10 sequential lung compartments (from the mouth to 500 ml or 1000 ml depth with 50 or 100 ml intervals). The results from young subjects showed that regional deposition varied widely along the depth of the lung and peak surface dose was 5-7 times greater than the average lung dose. Data analysis is in progress for elderly subjects. Data analysis for mathematical modeling is in progress.