Magnetic Drug Targeting in Human Airway Geometry

Abstract

Patient specific drug delivery may improve the efficiency of the medicine and reduce the side-effects. In addition to different medicines and dosages, the target site of the medicine can differ from patient to patient. By using drug particles with a magnetic core, and under the influence of a magnetic field, the particles may be steered towards the point of interest. In the present study, computational fluid dynamics is used to study air flow and particle deposition in human airway geometry. In the first case study, passive particle deposition was carried out in a 90? bend to represent a simplified throat. Random-uniform and deterministic-uniform particle inlet distributions were used. Both the total and cumulative deposition efficiencies showed good agreement with literature. The second case study is again a 90? bend simulation but this time represents a simplified artery. Although the curvature ratio was the same the dimensions of the geometry were much smaller. In addition to passive particle deposition, magnetically enhanced particle deposition was studied and good agreement was obtained with both reference cases. The third case study features a simplification of the conducting airways: a triple bifurcation geometry.