School of Engineering, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia.
School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Int J Pharm. 2020 May 30;582:119286. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2020.119286. Epub 2020 Apr 9.
Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a high-resolution and non-invasive cross-sectional imaging technique mainly used for medical imaging and industrial non-destructive testing. However, its feasibility in the quantification of pulmonary drug deposition has not been investigated. In this study, an optically accessible airway model of the upper airway and the tracheobronchial tree was used, and experiments were performed at flow rates of 40 L/min, 60 L/min and 80 L/min. Drug deposition in different regions of the airway cast has been determined and quantified from OCT images of the deposition layer. Regionally resolved measurement of deposition shows that flow rate has a significant effect (p = 0.04) on the average thickness of the deposition layer in the upper airway but not in the tracheobronchial tree under these test conditions. These localized and high-resolution measurements of deposition also demonstrate that the flow rate can influence the spatial uniformity of the deposition layer. The technique is able to provide significant regional drug deposition details, including the thickness, spatial deposition pattern and micro-cavities in the deposition layer, that would potentially serve to assess the efficacy of inhalation drug delivery systems.
光学相干断层扫描（OCT）是一种高分辨率、非侵入性的横截面成像技术，主要用于医学成像和工业无损检测。然而，其在肺部药物沉积定量方面的可行性尚未得到研究。在本研究中，使用了一种可光学访问的上呼吸道气道模型和气管支气管树，并在 40 L/min、60 L/min 和 80 L/min 的流速下进行了实验。通过对沉积层的 OCT 图像进行分析，确定并量化了气道铸型中不同区域的药物沉积。沉积的区域分辨测量表明，在这些测试条件下，流速对上呼吸道沉积层的平均厚度有显著影响（p=0.04），但对气管支气管树无显著影响。这些局部和高分辨率的沉积测量还表明，流速会影响沉积层的空间均匀性。该技术能够提供重要的区域性药物沉积细节，包括沉积层的厚度、空间沉积模式和微腔，这可能有助于评估吸入药物输送系统的疗效。
