Integrations of numerical and experimental investigations to compare the effectiveness of drug delivery among three intranasal sprays

Intranasal sprays play a crucial role in treating allergies and sinus disease. Both conditions decrease the quality of life and contribute to a substantial economic burden. There are various intranasal sprays available at pharmacies, which result in different effectiveness of drug delivery. In this work, we integrate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and particle image velocimetry (PIV) investigations to compare the effectiveness of drug delivery among three over-the-counter (OTC) intranasal corticosteroid sprays (INCS). Firstly, the flow field near the nozzle exit in the drug spray was measured using PIV to serve as the initial condition for the CFD modeling. Secondly, a subject-specific model of the nasal cavity was reconstructed based on CT scans. Thirdly, drug depositions in the subject-specific nasal cavity for the three OTC INCS were simulated with CFD using the initial conditions from PIV. The CFD results show significant discrepancies among the three OTC INCS. A more detailed comparison can be expected after considering more subject-specific samples from diverse groups.