Patent Application
20200164163
The present disclosure relates to a nebulizer and a flow-guiding element, and more particularly to a nebulizer and a flow-guiding element adapted to a nebulizer.
Nebulization therapies for respiratory diseases have gained popularity in recent years for being capable of providing more efficient and more direct therapeutic effects than oral medication.
Nebulizer is used to deliver medication in fine particles to patients for inhalation. A nebulizing module is a component of nebulizer accounting for generating aerosol for treating a patient with respiratory conditions. The nebulizing module typically includes a perforated membrane and a vibratile element. By vibrating the perforated membrane with the vibratile element, the liquid medicament permeating the perforated membrane is dispersed to be aerosol. In the delivery of medication, certain physical properties are required to a drug particle for depositing in the deep lung in order to exert the therapeutic action. Specifically, the drug particle having an aerodynamic diameter below 5 μm is considered as a respirable drug particle; in other words, the aerodynamic diameter of the drug particle must be less than 5 μm when exiting an inhaler, so that the drug particle can deposit in the deep lung. A challenge in effectively providing the respirable drug particle for the patient is that the aerosol can aggregate on the path from the nebulizing module to the outlet of the nebulizer, which will result in a lower respirable fraction of the inhalation drug particles.
In response to the above-referenced technical inadequacies, the present disclosure provides a nebulizer and flow-guiding element thereof.
In one aspect, the present disclosure provides a flow-guiding element adapted to a nebulizer having a nebulizing module. The flow-guiding element includes a main flow-guiding body having a main flow-guiding channel and an auxiliary flow-guiding body having at least one auxiliary flow-guiding channel. The at least one auxiliary flow-guiding channel is communicated with the main flow-guiding channel, and a longitudinal axis of the main flow-guiding body crosses a longitudinal axis of the auxiliary flow-guiding body.
In one aspect, the present disclosure provides a nebulizer including a nebulizing module and a flow-guiding element connected to the nebulizing module. The flow-guiding element includes a main flow-guiding body having a main flow-guiding channel and an auxiliary flow-guiding body having at least one auxiliary flow-guiding channel. The at least one auxiliary flow-guiding channel is communicated with the main flow-guiding channel, and a longitudinal axis of the main flow-guiding body crosses a longitudinal axis of the auxiliary flow-guiding body.
Therefore, the flowing of the air in the main flow-guiding channel create a negative pressure in the main flow-guiding channel to enable an environment air to be introduced into the main flow-guiding channel by passing through the auxiliary flow-guiding channel, and the introduced air toward the position of the nebulizing module of the nebulizer, or crosses the airflow and the drug particles in the main flow-guiding channel, so as to disperse drug particles and lower the aggregation degree of the nebulized drug particles.
The nebulizer and the flow-guiding element thereof can effectively increase the drug respirable fraction in the lower respiratory tract of a patient without interfering with the performance of the nebulizer, and in the meantime mitigate the adverse reaction(s) caused by deposition of the drug particles in the mouth or the upper respiratory tract of the patient, thereby greatly increasing the efficiency of a nebulization treatment.
These and other aspects of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description of the embodiment taken in conjunction with the following drawings and their captions, although variations and modifications therein may be affected without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts of the disclosure.
The present disclosure will become more fully understood from the following detailed description and accompanying drawings.
The following examples are intended as illustrative only since numerous modifications and variations therein will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
Like numbers in the drawings indicate like components throughout the views. As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise, the meaning of “a”, “an”, and “the” includes plural reference, and the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on”. Titles or subtitles can be used herein for the convenience of a reader, which shall have no influence on the scope of the present disclosure.
The terms used herein generally have their ordinary meanings in the art. In the case of conflict, the present document, including any definitions given herein, will prevail. The same thing can be expressed in more than one way. Alternative language and synonyms can be used for any term(s) discussed herein, and no special significance is to be placed upon whether a term is elaborated or discussed herein. A recital of one or more synonyms does not exclude the use of other synonyms. The use of examples anywhere in this specification including examples of any terms is illustrative only, and in no way limits the scope and meaning of the present disclosure or of any exemplified term. Likewise, the present disclosure is not limited to various embodiments given herein. Numbering terms such as “first”, “second” or “third” can be used to describe various components, signals or the like, which are for distinguishing one component/signal from another one only, and are not intended to, nor should be construed to impose any substantive limitations on the components, signals or the like.
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In certain embodiments, the auxiliary flow-guiding body 11 can include at least one auxiliary flow-guiding channel.
In certain embodiments, the at least one auxiliary flow-guiding channel can be one oblique flow-guiding channel 111 or a plurality of oblique flow-guiding channels 111, and a longitudinal axis of the auxiliary flow-guiding body 11 crosses the nebulizing module 21 of the nebulizer 2. The shape and contour of the auxiliary flow-guiding body 11 are not limited in the present disclosure. As shown below in Table 1, which presents a comparison between a flow-guiding element 1 provided with no oblique flow-guiding channel and two embodiments of a flow-guiding element 1 provided with at least one oblique flow-guiding channel 111 according to the present disclosure, when the aerosol output rate remains relatively unaffected, a main flow-guiding body 10 provided with the oblique flow-guiding channel(s) 111 effectively decreases the mass median aerodynamic diameter (MMAD) of the nebulized drug particles by 17% to 27%, and increases the fine particle fraction (FPF) of the nebulized drug particles by 23% to 40%. It is noted that Aerosol output rate (g/min) refers to the rate of nebulization and the rate of drug delivery, MMAD (μm) is a parameter of the diameter of the nebulized drug particles, FPF (%) refers to a fraction of the drug particles whose diameter are smaller than 5 μm after nebulization, and those drug particles are considered as respirable drug particles.
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In certain embodiments, as shown in
In certain embodiments, as shown in
In certain embodiments, the main flow-guiding body 10 provided with the at least one auxiliary flow-guiding body 11 including the oblique flow-guiding channel 111 and the reverse oblique flow-guiding channel 112. As shown in
In certain embodiments, as shown in
In certain embodiments, a diameter D1 of the auxiliary flow-guiding channel is smaller than a diameter D2 of the main flow-guiding channel 101. With a smaller cross-sectional area of the auxiliary flow-guiding channel and a larger cross-sectional area of the main flow-guiding channel 101, the flowing of the airflow in the auxiliary flow-guiding channel is faster than the airflow in the main flow-guiding channel 101, so as to improve the effect of dispersing nebulized drug particles DP.
In certain embodiments, a diameter D3 of the lateral hole 12 is larger than the diameter D1 of the auxiliary flow-guiding channel with a larger cross-sectional area of the lateral hole 12 and the smaller cross-sectional area of the auxiliary flow-guiding channel, the negative pressure created by the airflow in the main flow-guiding channel 101 can introduce sufficient airflows from both the environment air A from both the lateral hole 12 and the auxiliary flow-guiding channel, so as to further improve the effect of dispersing nebulized drug particles DP.
In certain embodiments, instead of the oblique flow-guiding channel(s) 111 or the reverse oblique flow-guiding channel(s) 112, the main flow-guiding body 10 may be provided with the auxiliary flow-guiding body 11 including at least one vertical flow-guiding channel that forms an included angle of 90 degrees with the outer surface of the main flow-guiding body 10. The vertical flow-guiding channel has a first opening formed on the outer surface of the auxiliary flow-guiding body 11, and a second opening formed on the inner surface of the main flow-guiding body 10. The vertical flow-guiding channel has a longitudinal shape that serves to guide and unify the flowing directions of the air inside of the vertical flow-guiding channel that is introduced from the first opening because of the negative pressure in the main flow-guiding channel 101. The longitudinal axis of the vertical flow-guiding channel crosses the first flowing path P1 of the nebulized drug particles DP inside of the main flow-guiding channel 101.
Accordingly, the flow-guiding element 1 provided with the auxiliary flow-guiding body 11 including at least one oblique flow-guiding channel 111, the reverse oblique flow-guiding channel 112, the vertical low-guiding channel, or the combination thereof can effectively increase the drug respirable fraction in the lower respiratory tract of a patient without interfering with the performance of the nebulizer 2, and in the meantime mitigate the adverse reaction(s) caused by deposition of the drug particles in the mouth or the upper respiratory tract of the patient, thereby greatly increasing the efficiency of a nebulization treatment.
The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure has been presented only for the purposes of illustration and description and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching.
Certain embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the present disclosure and their practical application so as to enable others skilled in the art to utilize the present disclosure and various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. Alternative embodiments will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which the present disclosure pertains without departing from its spirit and scope.
The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiments of the disclosure has been presented only for the purposes of illustration and description and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching.
The embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the disclosure and their practical application so as to enable others skilled in the art to utilize the disclosure and various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. Alternative embodiments will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which the present disclosure pertains without departing from its spirit and scope.
This application claims priority from the U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/771,175 filed Nov. 26, 2018, which application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Some references, which may include patents, patent applications and various publications, may be cited and discussed in the description of this disclosure. The citation and/or discussion of such references is provided merely to clarify the description of the present disclosure and is not an admission that any such reference is “prior art” to the disclosure described herein. All references cited and discussed in this specification are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties and to the same extent as if each reference was individually incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62771175 | Nov 2018 | US |
