Airflow patterns in a human nasal model.

Nasal airflow patterns were studied by using xenon 133 gas to image the course taken by air as it flowed through a plastic model of the human nasal cavity. The model was produced from the head of a human cadaver, and was anatomically correct. A needle catheter was used to infuse the radioactive xenon into a continuous flow of room air maintained through the model by a variable vacuum source connected to the nasopharynx. The radioactive gas was infused at one of five release sites in the nostril, and the distribution of the radioactivity was imaged in the sagittal plane with a scintillation camera. The data were organized to show the activity in six contiguous regions of the midnose. For each catheter, release site activity patterns were determined for three flow rates. The results of this experiment showed that both catheter position and flow rate had significant and reproducible effects on the distribution of radioactivity within the model.