The ability to express transgenes selectively within the lung will greatly facilitate the development of gene therapy for a variety of human diseases. We have demonstrated that aerosol administration of a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) expression plasmid complexed to cationic liposomes produces high-level, lung-specific CAT gene expression in mice in vivo. Significant levels of CAT act...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Continuous administration of aerosolized beta 2-agonists has been suggested as an effective treatment for severe reversible airways disease. To facilitate continuous therapy and avoid a feed system for small-volume nebulizers (SVNs), a large-volume medication nebulizer (Vortran HEART) was developed. The goal of this study was to determine actual drug delivery of the HE...

Biocompatible, biodegradable polymers are commonly used as excipients to improve the drug delivery properties of aerosol formulations, in which acetalated dextran (Ac-Dex) exhibits promising potential as a polymer in various therapeutic applications. Despite this promise, there is no comprehensive study on the use of Ac-Dex as an excipient for dry powder aerosol formulations. In this study, we ...

Pharmaceutical inhalation aerosols have been playing a crucial role in the health and well being of millions of people throughout the world for many years. The technology's continual advancement, the ease of use and the more desirable pulmonary-rather-than-needle delivery for systemic drugs has increased the attraction for the pharmaceutical aerosol in recent years. But administration of drugs ...

While it has been clearly demonstrated that spontaneously breathing children of all ages with bronchospasm respond well to nebulized bronchodilators, only a small proportion of aerosolized drug reaches the lungs. 1–9 In addition, the combination of a small airway diameter, a rapid breathing pattern, and poor tolerance to the treatment has made delivery of nebulized medications to the airway of ...

This paper reviews the history of aerosol therapy; discusses patient, drug, and device factors that can influence the success of aerosol therapy; and identifies trends that will drive the science of aerosol therapy in the future. Aerosol medication is generally less expensive, works more rapidly, and produces fewer side effects than the same drug given systemically. Aerosol therapy has been use...

To the Editor: In the recent paper by El Taoum and associates,1 an in vitro comparison of aerosol dose delivery using jet and vibrating mesh nebulizers with a variety of nasal interface devices in pediatric patient models was presented. The results of this study demonstrated that the jet nebulizer was more efficient than the vibrating mesh nebulizer across all of the nasal interface devices tes...

Introduction Basic Concepts of Aerosol Therapy Inertial Impaction Gravitational Sedimentation Diffusion The Nebulizer The Metered Dose Inhaler Differences during Mechanical Ventilation The Ventilator-Patient Interface Breath Configurations The Airway The Environment The Assessment Evaluation of Lower Respiratory Tract Aerosol Delivery with Bench Models of Mechanical Ventilation Aerosol-Generati...

Pediatric patients are different from adult patients with respect to airway anatomy and breathing patterns. They are also incapable of following commands and often reject breathing treatments. For these reasons, aerosol drug delivery is one of the most technically challenging aspects for clinicians providing respiratory care to young children. Improvements in nebulizer technology have provided ...