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Updated: Jun 29, 2026

Modeling and Simulations of Olfactory Drug Delivery with Passive and Active Controls of Nasally Inhaled Pharmaceutical Aerosols
Published on: May 20, 2016
Ventilation and drug delivery to the paranasal sinuses: studies in a nasal cast using pulsating airflow
Winfried Möller1, Uwe Schuschnig, Gabriele Meyer
1Clinical Cooperation Group, Inflammatory Lung Diseases', Helmholtz Center Munich--German Research Center for Environmental Health, Gauting, Germany moeller@helmholtz-muenchen.de
Background:
Although there is a high incidence of nasal disorders including chronic sinusitis, there is limited success in the topical drug delivery to the nose and the paranasal sinuses. This is caused by the nose being an efficient filter for inhaled aerosol particles and the paranasal sinuses being virtually non ventilated
Method:
The objective of this study was to visualize the efficiency of sinus ventilation in a nasal cast using dynamic 81mKr-gas imaging in combination with pulsating airflows. Furthermore, the efficiency of the deposition of radiolabelled aerosol was assessed.
Results:
Pulsation increased ventilation efficiency of the sinuses more than fivefold and aerosol deposition efficiency more than twentyfold, compared to delivery without pulsation. Furthermore pulsation increased aerosol deposition in the nasal airways by a factor of three. Using pulsating airflow Kr-gas ventilation and aerosol deposition efficiencies increased with increasing sinus volume. Pulsating airflow resulted in a deposition of up to 8% of the nebulized drug within the sinuses compared to 0.2% without pulsation.
Conclusions:
The study demonstrates the high efficiency of a pulsating airflow in paranasal sinus ventilation and aerosolized drug delivery. This proves that topical drug delivery to the paranasal sinuses in relevant quantities is possible.
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