REVOLUTIONIZING RESPIRATORY CARE WITH SMART NEBULIZER

Abstract

Respiratory diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma still have a massive impact on health care worldwide and aerosolized drug delivery has remained at the center stage of their management. Nevertheless, traditional nebulization devices especially jet nebulizers have drawbacks such as low efficiency of delivery, large residual volumes of drug, long treatment time and does not have the ability to provide precise dose control. To address these limitations, this study presents the design, development, and experimental validation of a smart vibrating mesh nebulizer (VMN) that is electronically controlled (closed loop), capable of loading dose and measure flow automatically. The proposed system was developed in SOLIDWORKS and was executed on an embedded system of Arduino platform, which incorporates a flow sensor (SEN-HZ06D), solenoid valve, miniature pump, ultrasonic mist generator, keypad, LCD interface, and a rechargeable battery pack of 3-cell lithium-ion. Real-time monitoring and automated termination of drug delivery is attained because of the closed loop architecture that allows real-time monitoring and termination after the achieved dosing. Four controlled laboratory tests were performed to test the performance of the device under standard ambient conditions and to determine dosing accuracy, efficiency of delivery, nebulization time and power consumption. The experimental findings indicated consistent and reliable operation throughout the experiment, with 1-30 mL of drug being delivered and 9.8-60 percent being the delivery efficiency, depending on the working protocol. The system showed no significant variation in average delivery rates in each of the tests (857–8734 mL/min), was able to maintain the set dose without any flow disturbance or mesh clogging and had no large variation in power consumption with a 0.45 + -0.05 A battery current. These results prove that the designed smart nebulizer has proper repeatable dosing, automated shutoff, real time feedback, as well as uniform aerosol generation. In general, the created device provides a low-cost, portable, and smart alternative of traditional nebulizers and creates a solid starting point to integrate with non-invasive ventilation (NIV) systems to improve the efficacy of aerosol delivery and pulmonary deposition in COPD patients.