Fig. 8
From: Aerosol drug delivery to spontaneously-breathing preterm neonates: lessons learned
Scheme of an in vitro neonatal circuit for aerosol delivery experiments. The set-up is composed of a neonatal ventilator to provide NIV support followed by a temperature and humidity control unit, a nebulizer placed immediately after the Y-piece, a patient interface (nasal prongs), a cast of the upper airways of a premature neonate (PrINT model), a backup trap to collect the aerosol that impacts in the cast and moves forward as a liquid, drug collecting filters to determine the lung dose and the amount of aerosol reaching the expiratory limb, and a breath simulator programmed with a sinusoidal breathing pattern of a premature neonate. adapted from [182, 184]