ArticleJournal of aerosol medicine and pulmonary drug delivery2011
Origin of exhaled breath particles from healthy and human rhinovirus-infected subjects.
Article in Journal of aerosol medicine and pulmonary drug delivery, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 78 papers.
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Who cites it
78 citing papers in PubMed.
- Characterizations of particle size distribution of the droplets exhaled by sneeze.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2013Trial
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- A system for invitro inhaled/exhaled aerosol testing of personal protective equipment.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Understanding Aerosol-Mediated Disease Transmission.ACS central science · 2025Review
- Determinants of respiratory tract aerosol generation in a diverse clinical population: an observational study.BMJ open respiratory research · 2025Observational
- Comparative assessment of airborne infection risk tools in enclosed spaces: Implications for disease control.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2025Article
- Creating respiratory pathogen-free environments in healthcare and nursing-care settings: a comprehensive review.GeroScience · 2025Review
- Symptom propagation in respiratory pathogens of public health concern: a review of the evidence.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Review
- Airborne respiratory aerosol transport and deposition in a two-person office using a novel diffusion-based numerical model.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2024Article
- Article
- A safer framework to evaluate characterization technologies of exhaled biologic materials using electrospun nanofibers.Nanoscale · 2023Article
- Rapid Direct Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Aerosols in Exhaled Breath at the Point of Care.ACS sensors · 2023Article
- Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment of Contracting COVID-19 Derived from Measured and Simulated Aerosol Particle Transmission in Aircraft Cabins.Environmental health perspectives · 2023Article
- Article
- Lung aerosol particle emission increases with age at rest and during exercise.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Mechanisms, Techniques and Devices of Airborne Virus Detection: A Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Review
- Exhaled Breath Aerosol Shedding of Highly Transmissible Versus Prior Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Variants.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2023Article
- New dose-response model and SARS-CoV-2 quanta emission rates for calculating the long-range airborne infection risk.Building and environment · 2023Article
- Exhaled aerosols among PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2-infected children.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2023Article
- What were the historical reasons for the resistance to recognizing airborne transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic?Indoor air · 2022Review
18 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundExhaled breath studies suggest that humans exhale fine particles during tidal breathing, but little is known of their physical origin in the respiratory system during health or disease.
methodsParticles generated by 3 healthy and 16 human rhinovirus (HRV)-infected subjects were counted using an optical particle counter with nominal diameter-size bins ranging between 0.3 and 10 μm. Data were collected from HRV-infected subjects during tidal breathing. In addition, data from healthy subjects were collected during coughs, swallows, tidal breathing, and breathing to total lung capacity (TLC) and residual volume (RV). Using general additive models, we graphed exhaled particle concentration versus airflow during exhalation. Exhaled particles were collected from expired air on gelatin filters and analyzed for HRV via quantitative PCR.
resultsHRV-infected subjects exhaled from 0.1 to 7200 particles per liter of exhaled air during tidal breathing (geometric mean = 32 part/L). A small fraction (24%) of subjects exhaled most (81%) of the particles measured and 82% of particles detected were 0.300-0.499 μm. Minute ventilation, maximum airflow during exhalation, and forced expiratory volume 1 second (FEV(1) % predicted) were positively correlated with particle production. No human rhinovirus was detected in exhaled breath samples. Three healthy subjects exhaled less than 100 particles per liter of exhaled air during tidal breathing and increased particle concentrations more with exhalation to RV than with coughing, swallowing, or rapid exhalation.
conclusionsSubmicron particles were detected in the exhaled breath of healthy and HRV-infected subjects. Particle concentrations were correlated with airflow during the first half of exhalation, and peaked at the end of exhalation, indicating both lower and upper airways as particle sources. The effect of breathing maneuver suggested a major contribution from lower airways, probably the result of opening collapsed small airways and alveoli.
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