ABSTRACT
Regional deposition effects are important in the pulmonary delivery of drugs intended for the topical treatment of respiratory ailments. They also play a critical role in the systemic delivery of drugs with limited lung bioavailability. In recent years, significant improvements in the quality of pulmonary imaging have taken place, however the resolution of current imaging modalities remains inadequate for quantifying regional deposition. Computational Fluid-Particle Dynamics (CFPD) can fill this gap by providing detailed information about regional deposition in the extrathoracic and conducting airways. It is therefore not surprising that the last 15years have seen an exponential growth in the application of CFPD methods in this area. Survey of the recent literature however, reveals a wide variability in the range of modelling approaches used and in the assumptions made about important physical processes taking place during aerosol inhalation. The purpose of this work is to provide a concise critical review of the computational approaches used to date, and to present a benchmark case for validation of future studies in the upper airways. In the spirit of providing the wider community with a reference for quality assurance of CFPD studies, in vitro deposition measurements have been conducted in a human-based model of the upper airways, and several groups within MP1404 SimInhale have computed the same case using a variety of simulation and discretization approaches. Here, we report the results of this collaborative effort and provide a critical discussion of the performance of the various simulation methods. The benchmark case, in vitro deposition data and in silico results will be published online and made available to the wider community. Particle image velocimetry measurements of the flow, as well as additional numerical results from the community, will be appended to the online database as they become available in the future.
Subject(s)
Aerosols/chemistry , Benchmarking/methods , Computer Simulation , Laryngeal Masks , Lung/drug effects , Powders/chemistry , Administration, Inhalation , Chemistry, Pharmaceutical/methods , Drug Delivery Systems/methods , Humans , Hydrodynamics , Models, Biological , Nebulizers and Vaporizers , Particle Size , Permeability , Respiratory Tract Absorption , RheologyABSTRACT
Epidemiological studies of oral health in schools constitute a basic instrument for planning prevention and dental health programs. This paper sets forth some minimum common elements in the design, execution, and analysis of such studies, and presents a method for the adjustment of examining teams, index ages, diagnostic criteria, classification of dental malocclusions, and indicators for analysis of results.
Subject(s)
Oral Health , School Dentistry , Adolescent , Child , Dental Caries/diagnosis , Dental Caries/epidemiology , Epidemiologic Studies , Female , Humans , Male , Malocclusion/diagnosis , Malocclusion/epidemiology , Spain/epidemiology , StudentsABSTRACT
The main object of this study was to test acquisition-retrieval deficits in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients A Spanish version of the Rey Auditory-Verbal Test (RAVLT) (Rey 1964) was used with an MS group (n=10 subjects) and a control group (n=10) Different measurements were obtained with the RAVLT memory span, a learning curve, and a curve of serial position of words The results revealed no differences between groups in memory span and learning curve, but significant differences were found in the curve of serial position No revency effect in the immediate form of theRAVLT was seen These results are discussed with reference to the work of Baddelaey and Hitch (1993) regarding recency effects and related literature on the acquisition-retrieval deficits in MS patients.
ABSTRACT
A Spanish version of Forms A and B of the Whitaker Index of Schizophrenic Thinking (WIST) was administered to two sets of subjects. In the first study, the WIST was administered to 147 subjects of both sexes grouped into one of six categories: acute paranoid schizophrenic, acute nonparanoid schizophrenic, chronic paranoid schizophrenic, chronic nonparanoid schizophrenic, normal, and university student. Results revealed significant group differences; schizophrenics scored significantly higher. Further, chronic schizophrenics, regardless of the existence of paranoia, scored higher than acute subjects. In the second study, a heterogenous group of schizophrenics was compared to heroin addicts and depressed subjects (total N = 93). Significant group differences again were noted; the schizophrenics scored higher than the two other clinical samples.
