Three-dimensional reconstruction and modeling of the respiratory airways, particle deposition, and drug delivery efficacy

The lung is an organ of the respiratory system. It supplies the organism with oxygen, which is necessary for metabolism and ensures carbon dioxide release. In this chapter we have focused on modeling of the regional deposition at the same level of resolution as the in vivo data, using CFD study. Detailed 3D computer tomography (CT)-based geometric CFD modeling of the upper and central airways was investigated. In order to apply a 3D reconstruction of the lung from CT images, we have extracted a 3D surface mesh and a one-dimensional (1D) representation of the airways. We employed the extended 1D graph to derive visualization of probabilistic airway generation labels in the space of the subjects’ anatomy as defined by the CT images and to generate a 3D surface defining personalized boundary conditions that can be employed as input for computational fluid dynamics simulations. We used the results of the detailed airflow patterns in the upper and central airways in the diseased lungs in a most effective way to optimize drug delivery efficacy. Actually, the idea is to arrange drug particles in the most effective way. This can be done if we detect the lobe from which the position of the streamlines is on the specific grids, where drug particles should be administered. Some of the initial results for CFD study, deposition of the particles, and optimization of drug delivery efficacy are presented in this chapter. A new device designed to administer drug particles through only a particular area of the device outlet and during a particular period of time to increase spatiotemporal fluid dynamics relationship between device outlet and target site (lobe) is also presented.