Aerosol deposition distribution calculations with the Stochastic Lung Model
Péter Füri, Ágnes Jókay, Árpád Farkas, Blanka Czitrovszky, Imre Balásházy
Centre for Energy Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
1121, Budapest, Konkoly-Thege Miklós út 29-33.
The biological effects of inhaled dust, pollens, viruses, bacteria, aerosol drugs and radioactive aerosols strongly depend on the deposition distribution of these particles in the respiratory system. Determination of the mass and number of inhaled particles deposited within the airways is an important task in many fields of biology and physics. There are several methods to describe the deposition distribution of mono- and polydisperse particles in the respiratory system. The realisation of in vivo experiments is usually difficult, expensive and needs ethical permission, as well. Because of these difficulties, numerical modelling plays an important role in this field of science. For the simulation of deposition distribution of different aerosols in the human lung and extrathoracic region, the Stochastic Lung Model was developed in the Centre for Energy Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences and in the University of Salzburg. With the help of this model we calculated the deposition distribution of ultrafine urban dust and the most often used aerosol drugs for asthmatic patients in Hungary. Because of the new developments, the model is capable to determine the deposition distribution of these aerosols in healthy as well as asthmatic human respiratory systems taking into account the different periods of the breathing cycle (inhalation, breath hold, exhalation) of non-hygroscopic and hygroscopic particles. With these developments the new model is suitable to improve patient specific aerosol medicine therapy in case of asthma and emphysema patients.
In addition, we simulated the deposited mass of different heavy metals in the respiratory system related to the inhalation of red mud dust after the 2010 Ajka red mud accident.
In the future this model will also be able to calculate the local and regional dose of the lung tissues in case of inhaled radioactive particles.