Characterisation of high dose aerosols from dry powder inhalers

Developments in high dose dry powder aerosol delivery will increasingly challenge the applicability of currently used aerosol characterisation techniques. With cascade impaction analysis bounce effects can negatively influence stage collection efficiency, especially with increasing impactor loads. In this study the suitability of the multi stage liquid impinger (MSLI) and the Next Generation Impactor (NGI) for the characterisation of dry powder aerosols containing up to 50mg of drug is evaluated. The occurrence of bounce effects is quantitatively assessed by comparison with data obtained from laser diffraction analysis. The liquid based impaction surfaces of the MSLI largely prevent bounce effects, but the low number of cut-off values associated with this impactor hinders accurate data interpretation. With the NGI, a standard high viscosity plate coating insufficiently reduces bounce effects, causing the fraction <1 μm to be higher than what can maximally be expected based on the primary particle size distribution (PSD) obtained from RODOS dispersion. With this type of impactor, the use of solvent soaked filters as impaction surface is necessary to eliminate bounce effects.