Most importantly, CFD assessment of airway showed increase in geometry of the most constricted area of the airway.
Capillary flow porometry (CFP) is used for measuring the most constricted part (bottleneck) of through-pores in synthetic membranes.
The geometry and cross-sectional area comparison of the most constricted area of the upper airway is presented in Fig. 1.
The most constricted area of the airway was selected and divided into ten cross-sections for comparison of finite element models.
The results showed that increases were only detected in nasal cavity volume, nasopharynx volume, and the most constricted area of the airway after RME.
The pressure required to empty a pore corresponds to the pressure necessary to evacuate the liquid from the most constricted part of it.
The pressure and velocity at the most constricted area of the airway decreased after RME for the laminar flow more than the turbulent flow although they both showed similar distribution patterns for the integral and partial models.
On the three-dimensional (3D) CT scans, the airway volume was measured at the nasal cavity, nasopharynx, oropharynx, hypopharynx, and the most constricted area of the airway using Dolphin imaging software version 11.0 (Dolphin Imaging, Chatsworth, CA, USA).
Three-dimensional evaluation of the airway volume was performed after dividing the airway passage into the nasal cavity, nasopharynx, oropharynx, hypopharynx, and the most constricted area of the airway.
Comparisons between before and after RME airway volume measurements showed that increases were only detected in nasal cavity volume, nasopharynx volume, and the most constricted area of the airway (Table 2).
