Table 2.

Techniques for evaluating pulmonary drug delivery systems.

Type	Technique	Measurement determined
In vitro	Dissolution test	Dissolution rate
	Inertial impaction using cascade impactor	Aerodynamic particle size distribution (APSD)
	Delivered dose assay	Total delivered dose uniformity
	Laser diffraction	Particle size and particle size distribution
	Laser Doppler velocimetry	Aerosol velocity
Ex vivo	Isolated perfused lung	Mechanisms of drug transport and deposition
In vivo	Scintigraphy	Visualization and quantification of aerosol deposition in respiratory tract
	Pharmacokinetic (PK)-animal model/clinical trial	PK parameters
	Pharmacodynamics (PD)	Biochemical and physiological effects of a drug