Spring 2006 - Arkansas Children's Hospital

RESEARCH
When he’s not treating
patients, Dr.Ariel Berlinski
is in the lab trying to figure
out the best ways to deliver
aerosol medication to
children.
Philanthropy Helps
Make Aerosol
Lab Possible
The Pediatric Aerosol Research Laboratory at Arkansas
Children’s Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI) is one of
only a few academic laboratories in North America
researching the best ways to deliver aerosol medication to
children. It was established, in part, with funding from the
National Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and an endowment
from the George Family Fund for Asthma.
Aerosol medication is the primary treatment for children
with asthma and cystic fibrosis; however, much of the
medication testing has been performed in adults, and there
is little information regarding its optimal use in children.
“Children are not small adults, and there are variables
such as age, breathing pattern and cooperation, that must
be considered when a child receives treatment,” says *Dr.
Ariel Berlinski, director of the laboratory. “These medications
have to reach deep inside the lungs to be effective,
so we’re working to improve the amount of medicine that
can get into the lungs.”
Researchers compare and test nebulizers and inhalers
as they come on the market to determine the characteristics
of the aerosol formulas. They use technology that
mimics the breathing patterns of children of different ages,
allowing researchers a more realistic evaluation of the
effects.
“In testing these aerosol medications, we study how
variations in the administration determine changes in the
amount of drug available to the patient, and our research
shows that these differences could lead to a treatment failure,”
says Berlinski. “We can also measure the particle size
of the aerosol. If it’s too big, it fails to enter the lung; if it’s
too small, it may pass in and out of the lung or be delivered
to other organs. Therefore, it’s possible that a child
could be taking medication but never being treated.”
“Dr. Berlinski’s work and the efforts in the
Pediatric Aerosol Research Laboratory at ACHRI is
important work on a crucial area of medical treatment
in these patient groups,” says Dr. Richard Jacobs,
president of ACHRI. “This is another example of how
biomedical research and clinical research are important
in children. For children to be excluded from the
advances in science and medicine by not being
included in this research is unacceptable.”
Berlinski says one of the major hurdles he faces is
finding the funding to continue his research in the
future.
“Although our research is important, it is not one
of the top priorities of either funding agencies or
manufacturers,” Berlinski says. “They are already
selling the nebulizer, the spacer and the inhaler, so
they really don’t have a need for investing.
Philanthropy played a role in establishing our lab, and
I hope it will help us continue with future projects.”
Berlinski says in the future, his research will
incorporate new and innovative technologies to measure
particle size and to study other delivery systems as
these treatments are released into the market.
“I’m mainly a clinician whose time is spent treating
patients, but I also think it’s important to try and
learn more about what we do,” Berlinski says. “It’s
important to me to generate information that will be
useful to our institution and useful to the community
in achieving better outcomes.”
*Ariel Berlinski, M.D., is a pediatric pulmonologist at ACH
and assistant professor, department of pediatrics, UAMS
College of Medicine
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