Variations in Tracheobronchial Airway Morphology for Different Age Groups

Knowledge of the geometric characteristics of actual human tracheobronchial (TB) airways is crucial for realistic and accurate computer simulations and experimental studies. An area of particular interest is drug delivery in the respiratory system to combat various diseases, such as COPD/asthma, diabetes and certain cancers. Deposition in the upper TB region is significant because it may be related to clearance of deposited particulate matters (PM) [1] and drug-aerosol treatment for upper airway asthma such as bronchodilators and corticosteroids [2,3]. The air flow characteristics, which affect particle deposition in the lung, depend strongly upon the morphology of the respiratory system and the breathing pattern of the subject. Therefore, an accurate understanding of the lung airway morphology is a crucial first step for an accurate analysis of inhaled particle trajectories as well as local and regional deposition of PM due to the irregular and asymmetric branching pattern [4]. In this paper, the age group variations of TB morphology are evaluated using lung airway morphology data from the literature and PET/CT images of two adolescents, 4 adults, and 4 seniors.