Exploring possibilities of an adaptive nebulizer system for improved and efficient aerosol therapy: a comprehensive experimental study

Aerosol therapy is the most common respiratory treatment for lung related diseases, where the drug is atomized to micro particle size allowing it to reach different areas of the respiratory tract. Many delivery devices exist, but nebulizers, despite their low efficiency (\u3c20%), are still the most common method of delivering medication to children or patients in critical care. The most common respiratory therapy standard has set guidelines that when the nebulizer sputters, it marks the end of treatment, not realizing that sputtering is a result of many external factors in nebulizer and leads to wasted drug and high cost. This research is aimed at delaying the start of sputtering thereby improving consistency in nebulization for effective aerosol treatment and creating an adaptive timed drug delivery system. Modifications included the addition of a baffle and creating hydrophobic surface of nebulizer interior walls, when tested with 3cc Sodium Chloride solution showed a statistically significantly difference in delaying sputtering time thereby improving nebulizer consistency and lowering residual volume F(12,52)=135.75, p \u3c0.001 as compared to unmodified nebulizer. The second part of this project validated the concept of dynamic nebulization by creating a prototype using ultrafast sensors that control the aerosol generation only during inhalation. This concept is also able to provide quantifiable data on tidal volume of breathing cycle and effective treatment breaths. Ultra-fast sensors that were used in this prototype leads to the possibilities of shifting from current and inaccurate aerosol therapy standard measured as treatment time to a more accurate and quantifiable standard - number of breaths, while decreasing the treatment cost. As a next step, possibility of commercialization will be explored under guidance from Medical University of South Carolina