EXPLORING DESIGN POSSIBILITIES FOR ENHANCING DELIVERY EFFICIENCY OF A NEBULIZER

Aerosol therapy is the most common respiratory treatment for lung related diseases, where the drug is produced as liquid droplets or solid aerosol of micro particle allowing it to reach different parts of the respiratory tract. Many delivery devices exist, but nebulizers are the most common and preferred method of treatment to deliver medication to children or patients who are in critical care. Recent research has shown that the percentage of drug delivered to the lungs through the nebulizer ranges from only 1 percent to less than 20 percent. This not only increases the cost of the drug, but is also an inefficient method of treating common occurring disease like asthma in young children. In response, this research is aimed at modifying the current nebulizers and creating a timed drug delivery system. The modification included the addition of a baffle for greater impaction of the particle to be re-nebulized. The first timed drug delivery system was created by controlling a solenoid valve with Arduino microcontroller, where the time to release and stop the nebulizer can be controlled. The next timed drug delivery system was also programmed through an Arduino microcontroller which controlled the speed at which the syringe released the drug into the ultrasonic mesh to atomize the particles. The time to atomize 3cc of sodium chloride solution with the modification had a statistically significant difference F(6, 28)=185.71, p<0.001 as compared to the nebulizers without modification through an ANOVA and tukey test at alpha=0.05. Residual volume of the nebulizers with and without the modification had no statistically significant difference. The concept of controlling the aerosol generation using active sensors that are monitoring the inhalation and exhalation of a patient can be achieved. With the use of ultra-fast sensors precise timing of inhalation and or exhalation is measured under different conditions of breathing pattern associated with normal to diseased lung. Possibilities can be further extended to changing the widely accepted aerosol therapy standard measured as treatment time to more accurately quantified number of breaths for treatment. A simple cost calculation also reveals a huge potential for savings related to use of nebulizers for treating asthma.