Air-conditioning in the human nasal cavity

David Elad*, Michael Wolf, Tilman Keck

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

Healthy humans normally breathe through their nose even though its complex geometry imposes a significantly higher resistance in comparison with mouth breathing. The major functional roles of nasal breathing are defense against infiltrating particles and conditioning of the inspired air to nearly alveolar conditions in order to maintain the internal milieu of the lung. The state-of-the-art of the existing knowledge on nasal air-conditioning will be discussed in this review, including in vivo measurements in humans and computational studies on nasal air-conditioning capacity. Areas where further studies will improve our understanding and may help medical diagnosis and intervention in pathological states will be introduced.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)121-127
Number of pages7
JournalRespiratory Physiology and Neurobiology
Volume163
Issue number1-3
DOIs
StatePublished - 30 Nov 2008

Keywords

  • Airflow
  • Heat flux
  • Humidity
  • Nasal function
  • Temperature
  • Water vapor flux

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