Physical properties of therapeutic aerosols.

This work describes results of measurements made to determine the size distribution of commonly used medical aerosols and the effect of high humidity on size distribution of some of those aerosols. If therapeutic aerosol particles change size considerably at high humidity, deposition quantity and site in the respiratory tract could be altered. If there is little change in size at high humidity, deposition could be estimated using theoretical deposition methods devised for deposition of stable particles. The results of this work suggest that the aerosol produced by most metered dose bronchodilator devices does not change size very much at high humidity.