Aerosol Inhalation in the Rat Lung Part I: Analysis of the Rat Acinus Morphometry and Construction of a Stochastic Rat Lung Model

ABSTRACT Morphometric data of four ventilatory units of the lung of a male Sprague-Dawley rat were statistically analyzed. Because of the rather monopodial structure of the rat lung, airways were classified by their diameters rather than by their generation numbers, as is general practice. The statistical analyses provided information on the distributions of a variety of geometric parameters of a rat acinus and the correlations among them. Together with the previously analyzed tracheobronchial morphometric data they form the basis of a stochastic morphometric model of the whole rat lung. This morphometric model can then be used for Monte Carlo simulations of the transport and deposition of inhaled aerosol particles in the rat lung.