Impacts of Sidewall and Carinal Tumors on Particle Deposition in Lung

One of the five vital organs of human body is the lung. Lungs are responsible for providing oxygen for blood and take carbon dioxide of the blood. Lung cancer is prevalent type of recent disease and most common cause of cancer deaths. Particle drug delivery is one of cancer tumor curing methods. Some lung cancer tumors grow up on lung branches and affect the air flow through the lungs and particle deposition efficiency. In the present study, effects of sidewall and carinal tumor on the air flow rate are numerically studied employing Weibel model for lung modeling. Moreover, particle release in the air and their deposition efficiency in the presence of tumors are investigated. Validity of the numerical method is illustrated before modeling the main problem. Results demonstrated when the branch is blocked by sidewall tumor, deposition efficiency suddenly decreases. However, when the branch is blocked by carinal tumor, deposition efficiency increases.

Keywords:

Lung , Cancer tumors , Particle deposition , CFD