Generation and Administration of Aerosols for Medical and Physiological Research Studies

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Abstract
A major area of interest in our laboratory is the translation of basic principles of aerosol physics into research protocols that allow the study of pulmonary physiology with application to the clinical delivery of therapeutic aerosols. These principles predict the important factors influencing particle deposition in the lung and, in clinical studies, particle size distribution, breathing pattern, lung mechanics, and nebulizer characteristics are often mentioned and recognized as governing variables. However, there are limited data available to quantitate their objective importance in a given clinical situation. When the delivered dose of an agent is important, the large number of possible combinations of the above factors make it difficult to accurately predict drug delivery and assess a clinical effect. In this paper are summarized approaches used at Stony Brook utilizing aerosol physics to provide practical physiologic data applicable to clinical aerosol therapy.