Albuterol Uptake in Bronchioles
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Millions of people around the world suffer from asthma, which is characterized by breathing problems due to constricting bronchioles. While current remedies involve an effective inhaler drug, such as Albuterol, that relieves such symptoms, it still has not been determined exactly how often such a drug should be administered. This project uses GAMBIT and FIDAP to model the uptake of Albuterol in bronchioles in order to determine how often these inhalers should be used to maximize drug delivery and quickly minimize symptoms. A suitable model of drug flow through the bronchioles was developed and we were able to determine how much Albuterol was present in the bronchioles at any given time. It was determined that the concentration reaches steady state at about 0.004 seconds, and concentration at every point was directly proportional to the defined inlet concentration after that. However, since we were not able to find the therapeutic concentration, or the minimum amount of Albuterol needed to be effective in relieving symptoms, we could not quite figure out the proper time spacing between inhaled dosages.