Respiratory medicine
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Respiratory medicine · Aug 2014
The clinical relevance of dry powder inhaler performance for drug delivery.
Although understanding of the scientific basis of aerosol therapy with dry powder inhalers (DPIs) has increased, some misconceptions still persist. These include the beliefs that high resistance inhalers are unsuitable for some patients, that extra fine (<1.0 μm) particles improve peripheral lung deposition and that inhalers with flow rate-independent fine particle fractions (FPFs) produce a more consistent delivered dose to the lungs. ⋯ The technical characteristics of different inhalers and the delivery and deposition of the fine particle dose to the lungs may be important additional considerations to help the physician to select the most appropriate device for the individual patient to optimise their treatment.