APD to Measure the Resistance of the Respiratory System

描述(申请人提供)：呼吸道筛查和诊断是医学和健康的重要组成部分。在过去的几年里，哮喘、慢性阻塞性肺疾病和肺气肿的发病率已经增长到流行的比例。医院呼吸机越来越多地被用来为非常年轻、非常年长的人以及所有介于两者之间的人提供生命支持。传统的肺功能测试并不总是足以提供卫生保健专业人员所需的呼吸阻力信息。气流摄动装置经过多年的发展，已经有了长足的进步。Apd的概念相对简单：它在流道上使用一个旋转的轮子来少量改变流量和口腔压力。根据这些变化，可以计算出阻力。Apd操作简单：它只需要短时间的正常呼吸，无论是非常年轻的人还是成年人都可以使用。它可以在发生阻力变化时显示它们。它可以被改装成测量呼吸机患者的阻力，并且可以像相机一样小而便携。目前形式的apd已经在近1000人身上使用。测定了平均呼吸阻力的正常值。还获得了吸气和呼气方向的阻力。APD仪已经被用来发现粘性鼻带可以减少大约10%的鼻阻力，它已经被用来证明运动后阻力的瞬时减少。它还应该能够帮助滴定住院患者的支气管扩张剂剂量。为了将apd投入商业生产，有必要进一步完善。在此之后，必须获得临床数据，并必须寻求监管部门的批准。Apd的市场是巨大的，包括世界上所有的医院、诊所、医生办公室、救护车和家庭护理设施。它也可以在兽医环境中使用。在第一阶段的工作中，我们计划进一步开发该系统，使其成为电池供电、重量轻、便携和更便宜的系统。它将在至少200人身上进行临床测试。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Respiratory screening and diagnosis is an important part of medicine and health. Incidences of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and emphysema have grown to epidemic proportions in the last few years. Hospital ventilators are being used more and more for life support for the very young, very old, and all those in between. Traditional pulmonary function tests are not always adequate to provide the respiratory resistance information required by health care professionals. The Airflow Perturbation Device (APD) has been under development for many years, and has undergone significant improvement. The APD is relatively simple in concept: it uses a rotating wheel in the flow path to change flow and mouth pressure by small amounts. From these changes, resistance can be calculated. The APD is simple in operation: it requires only normal breathing for a short time, and can be used by the very young as well as adults. It can show resistance changes as they occur. It can be modified to measure resistance of ventilated patients and can be made as small and portable as a camera. The APD in present form has been used on nearly 1000 people. Normal values of average respiratory resistance have been determined. Resistances in the inhalation and exhalation directions have also been obtained. The APD has been used to find that adhesive nasal strips can reduce nasal resistance by about 10%, and it has been used to demonstrate the transient reduction of resistance following exercise. It should also be able to help titrate bronchodilator doses in hospital patients. In order to bring the APD into commercial production, some further refinements are necessary. After that, clinical data must be obtained, and regulatory approval must be sought. The market for the APD is huge, including all hospitals, clinics, physician's offices, ambulances, and home care facilities in the world. It can also be used in veterinary settings. In Phase I work we plan to further develop the system to be battery-operated, low weight, portable, and less expensive. It will be clinically tested on at least 200 individuals.