Analysis of nasal air conditioning in subjects with unilateral cleft lip nasal deformity

• Published in: Respiratory physiology & neurobiology Vol. 291; p. 103694
• Main Authors: Li, Hang, Martin, Hannah L., Marcus, Jeffrey R., Frank-Ito, Dennis O.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.09.2021
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Cleft Lip - complications; Cleft Lip - physiopathology; Computational fluid dynamics; Computer Simulation; Female; Heat flux; Humans; Hydrodynamics; Male; Middle Aged; Moisture flux; Nasal air flow; Nasal air-conditioning; Nose - abnormalities; Nose - physiopathology; Nose Diseases - etiology; Nose Diseases - physiopathology; Unilateral cleft lip nasal deformity (uCLND); Moisture flux; Nasal air-conditioning; Nasal air flow; Computational fluid dynamics; Unilateral cleft lip nasal deformity (uCLND); Heat flux
• ISSN: 1569-9048; 1878-1519; 1878-1519
• DOI: 10.1016/j.resp.2021.103694

•The study of nasal air-conditioning function in the literature was surveyed.•The impact of uCLND on nasal air-conditioning function was studied using CFD.•Subjects with uCLND had comparable air-conditioning capacity with normal subjects.•Significant differences of SAHF50 between cleft side of uCLND and normal existed except for anterior region.•Patient-perceived nasal obstruction in uCLND may not be caused by impaired or inefficient air conditioning. This study evaluated the impact of unilateral cleft lip nasal deformity (uCLND) on the ability of the nasal passages to warm and humidify inspired environmental air using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling. Nasal air conditioning was simulated at resting inspiration in ten individuals with uCLND and seven individuals with normal anatomy. The overall heat and water transfer through nasal mucosa was significantly greater (p = 0.02 for both heat and moisture fluxes) on the non-cleft side than on the cleft side. Unilateral median and interquartile range (IQR) for heat flux (W/m2) was 190.3 (IQR 59.9) on the non-cleft side, 160.9 (IQR 105.0) on the cleft side, and 170.7 (IQR 87.8) for normal subjects. For moisture flux (mg/(s·m2), they were 357.4 (IQR 112.9), 298.7 (IQR 200.3) and 320.8 (IQR 173.0), respectively. Significant differences of SAHF50 between cleft side of uCLND and normal existed except for anterior region. Nevertheless, air conditioning ability in subjects with uCLND was generally comparable to that of normal subjects.