Deposition and dispersion of aerosols in the airways of the human respiratory tract: the effect of particle size.

Small volumes of aerosols (boluses) were inspired predominantly into the conducting airways of human lungs with a fast operating valve system, injecting preselected aerosol volumes near the end of a clean air inhalation. Particle recovery and bolus dispersion in the exhaled air after various periods of breathholding were investigated by measuring aerosol number concentration directly in front of the mouth with a laser photometer. Inspired and expired flow rates were measured with a pneumotachograph. The effect of particle size on these measurements has been investigated using aerosol particles with aerodynamic diameters (dae) between 0.9 and 5 microns. For aerosol particles smaller than 2 microns, bolus dispersion increases with increasing periods of breathholding (tb). After reaching a maximum, dispersion decreases with even longer tb. An increase in particle size yields a smaller increase in dispersion during the first seconds of breathholding while it is not changed significantly without breathhold. Particle losses during inhalation and exhalation increases with particle size. However, with increasing periods of breathholding, the losses of the smaller particles (less than 1.5 microns) were found to be much higher than expected theoretically, implying particle losses by sedimentation in the same airway structures. The small aerosol particles are deposited in smaller airways than bigger particles. These observations can be explained by cardiogenic mixing during periods of breathholding by pulsatile flow oscillations and confirm measurements with enhanced heart rate as described in an earlier paper. Small particles with restricted settling velocities remained longer in an airborne state in the airways and this leads to a more efficient cardiogenic mixing.