Journal of biomechanics
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Journal of biomechanics · Jul 2015
Validation of airway resistance models for predicting pressure loss through anatomically realistic conducting airway replicas of adults and children.
This work describes in vitro measurement of the total pressure loss at varying flow rate through anatomically realistic conducting airway replicas of 10 children, 4 to 8 years old, and 5 adults. Experimental results were compared with analytical predictions made using published airway resistance models. For the adult replicas, the model proposed by van Ertbruggen et al. (2005. ⋯ For child replicas, the Pedley and Katz models both provided good estimation of measured pressure loss at flow rates representative of resting tidal breathing, but under predicted measured values at high inspiratory flow rate (60 L/min). The van Ertbruggen model, developed based on flow simulations performed in an adult airway model, tended to under predict measured pressure loss through the child replicas across the range of flow rates studied (2 to 60 L/min). These results are intended to provide guidance for selection of analytical pressure loss models for use in predicting airway resistance and ventilation distribution in adults and children.
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Journal of biomechanics · Jul 2015
CNS wide simulation of flow resistance and drug transport due to spinal microanatomy.
Spinal microstructures are known to substantially affect cerebrospinal fluid patterns, yet their actual impact on flow resistance has not been quantified. Because the length scale of microanatomical aspects is below medical image resolution, their effect on flow is difficult to observe experimentally. Using a computational fluid mechanics approach, we were able to quantify the contribution of micro-anatomical aspects on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow patterns and flow resistance within the entire central nervous system (CNS). ⋯ The speed of rostral drug dispersion is drastically accelerated through pulsatile flow around microanatomy induced vortices. Exploring massive parallelization on a supercomputer, the feasibility of computational drug transport studies was demonstrated. CNS-wide simulations of intrathecal drugs administration can become a practical tool for in silico design, interspecies scaling and optimization of experimental drug trials.