Measurements of total aerosol deposition in intrathoracic conducting airway replicas of children

• Anatomically realistic replicas of airway generation 0–3 were fabricated.
• The airway replicas were based on CT scans from 11 children and 5 adults.
• Deposition of aerosol particle (diameters 3.5–5.5 μm) was measured in all replicas.
• An existing empirical correlation predicts total deposition well in all replicas.

The objective of this research was to obtain a correlation that quantitatively predicts micrometer-sized aerosol particle deposition in the upper conducting airways (trachea to generation 3) of children. Experiments were conducted using steady inhalation air flow rates to measure the deposition of monodisperse particles with diameters of 3.5–5.5 μm in replicas of the upper tracheobronchial airways of 11 children aged 2–8 years. The total deposition of particles was measured in each replica using gravimetry. Validation was performed by also measuring deposition in five adult replicas and the Alberta Idealized Throat and comparing with existing published data. Although there is considerable intersubject variability in our data, the empirical correlation of Chan & Lippmann (1980) was found to predict total deposition reasonably well in all of our adult and child replicas.