High frequency ventilation:

A noninvasive high frequency oscillation ventilator: Achieved by utilizing a blower and a valve

After the High Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation (HFOV) has been applied in the invasive ventilator, the new technique of noninvasive High Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation (nHFOV) which does not require opening the patient's airway has attracted much attention from the field. This paper proposes the design of an experimental positive pressure-controlled nHFOV ventilator which utilizes a blower and a special valve and has three ventilation modes: spontaneous controlled ventilation combining HFOV, time-cycled ventilation combining HFOV (T-HFOV), and continuous positive airway pressure ventilation combining HFOV. Experiments on respiratory model are conducted and demonstrated the feasibility of using nHFOV through the control of fan and valve. The experimental ventilator is able to produce an air flow with small tidal volume (VT) and a large minute ventilation volume (MV) using regular breath tubes and nasal mask (e.g., under T-HFOV mode, with a maximum tidal volume of 100 ml, the minute ventilation volume reached 14,400 ml). In the process of transmission, there is only a minor loss of oscillation pressure. (Under experimental condition and with an oscillation frequency of 2-10 Hz, peak pressure loss was around 0%-50% when it reaches the mask.).

OSCILLATORY FLOW OF HFV DISTRIBUTED IN LEFT AND RIGHT LUNGS: A MODEL-BASED EXPERIMENT AND INVESTIGATION

The human respiratory system is not entirely symmetric, and regional respiratory diseases can further enlarge this difference in most cases. Therefore, the lungs perform differently. This paper explored the possibilities of suppressing and enhancing the performance of a diseased lung with different high-frequency ventilation (HFV) frequencies by experimenting, as well as modeling, the oscillatory airflow distribution between the left and right lungs. The experimental setup mainly consisted of a physical respiratory model, a signal acquisition device, and a high-frequency oscillation ventilator. This ventilator outputs a positive sinusoidal air-pressure during inspiration. On these bases, a series of experiments were also conducted with different compliances and resistances in the left and the right lungs. The experiments demonstrated that the oscillatory flow distribution is primarily correlated with the oscillation frequency and the regional lung compliance.