ABSTRACT
The worldwide shortage of medical-grade ventilators is a well-known issue, that has become one of the central topics during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that these machines are expensive and have long lead times, one approach is to vacate them for patients in critical conditions while patients with mild to moderate symptoms are treated with stripped-down ventilators. We propose a mass-producible solution that can create such ventilators with minimum effort. The central part is a module that can be attached to CPAP machines and repurpose them as low-pressure ventilators. Here, we describe the concept and first measurements which underline the potential of our solution. Our approach may serve as a starting point for open-access ventilator technologies.
ABSTRACT
A rapid, simple and low-cost method is presented for intracardiac left-to-right shunt quantification in children with congenital heart disease. The percentage of shunt is calculated from data obtained by continuous PO2 measurement during oxygen inhalation, using a nondisposable intravascular PO2-electrode cardiac catheter. These values are compared with those obtained by the dye-dilution method (correlation coefficient r = 0.89) and the Fick method (correlation coefficient r = 0.98). The PO2 measurement proved reliable for small, medium, and large sized shunts.
