Taylor Terence E, Holmes Martin S, Sulaiman Imran, Costello Richard W, Reilly Richard B
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2015;2015:2227-30. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2015.7318834.
Inhalers are hand-held devices used to treat chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Medication is delivered from an inhaler to the user through an inhalation maneuver. It is unclear whether gender and anthropometric features such as age, height, weight and body mass index (BMI) influence the acoustic properties of inspiratory inhaler sounds and peak inspiratory flow rate (PIFR) in inhalers. In this study, healthy male (n=9) and female (n=7) participants were asked to inhale at an inspiratory flow rate (IFR) of 60 L/min in four commonly used inhalers (Turbuhaler(™), Diskus(™), Ellipta(™) and Evohaler(™)). Ambient inspiratory sounds were recorded from the mouthpiece of each inhaler and over the trachea of each participant. Each participant's PIFR was also recorded for each of the four inhalers. Results showed that gender and anthropometric features have the potential to influence the spectral properties of ambient and tracheal inspiratory inhaler sounds. It was also observed that males achieved statistically significantly higher PIFRs in each inhaler in comparison to females (p<;0.05). Acoustic features were found to be significantly different across inhalers suggesting that acoustic features are modulated by the inhaler design and its internal resistance to airflow.
吸入器是用于治疗慢性呼吸道疾病（如哮喘和慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD））的手持设备。药物通过吸入动作从吸入器输送给使用者。目前尚不清楚性别以及年龄、身高、体重和体重指数（BMI）等人体测量特征是否会影响吸入器吸气声音的声学特性和峰值吸气流量率（PIFR）。在本研究中，要求9名健康男性和7名健康女性参与者使用四种常用吸入器（都保（Turbuhaler(™)）、准纳器（Diskus(™)）、易纳器（Ellipta(™)）和爱全乐吸入器（Evohaler(™)））以60升/分钟的吸气流量率（IFR）进行吸气。从每个吸入器的吸嘴处以及每个参与者的气管上方记录周围的吸气声音。还记录了每个参与者使用四种吸入器时的PIFR。结果表明，性别和人体测量特征有可能影响周围和气管吸气吸入器声音的频谱特性。还观察到，与女性相比，男性使用每种吸入器时的PIFR在统计学上显著更高（p<;0.05）。发现不同吸入器的声学特征存在显著差异，这表明声学特征受吸入器设计及其内部气流阻力的调节。
