Humidity and Temperature Sensor Device for the Determination of Oxygen Consumption in Medical Applications

Background: The determination of oxygen consumption is an important monitor of normal cardiopulmonary and tissue function in anesthesia and critical care medicine. This requires accurate measurement of inhaled and exhaled volumes. Traditionally, it has been very difficult to measure the extra volume of exhalant (compared to inhalant) because of the difficulty in measuring the extra warmth and humidity of exhaled air. If it were possible to continuously and immediately measure temperature and humidity of a gas sample and allow its correction to standard conditions, much easier determination of oxygen consumption as well as carbon dioxide production would be enabled and would revolutionize the monitoring of gas exchange during anesthesia and critical care medicine that hereto has not been possible. Technology: An anesthesiologist at the University of California, Irvine, has invented a device which makes continuous, on-line and rapid measurements of gas temperature and humidity.

This novel device is inexpensive to construct and operate, simple to calibrate and use, non-toxic, and stable. Unlike other present slower devices, this device has a response time adequate even for cyclical gas flows that occur during clinical ventilation at higher respiratory frequencies. By digital signal acquisition and computer processing, the software algorithms provide instantaneous, on-line, and continuous measurement of airway gas humidity and temperature corrected to standard temperature & pressure. Unlike other measurement technologies which lose accuracy at high humidities, this device can measure accurately through the whole range. The device is designed for maximum patient safety. Application: This device will have wide applications in clinical metabolic measurement during anesthesia, pulmonary and critical care medicine; in clinical gaseous heat and water balance determinations; in aerosol deposition in the respiratory tract; and in varied industrial applications.

Patents:
US 6,014,890

Type of Offer: Licensing



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