title: Noninvasive monitoring of tidal volume with an extensometer: laboratory and clinical studies.
abstract: The extensometer or "rubbery ruler" (RR) is a new torso transducer with potential application in the field of respiratory pattern analysis. This paper determines whether the RR can measure tidal volume over a clinically useful time frame following spirometric calibration. Laboratory testing identified no error or baseline drift during 774,000 controlled stretches. Clinical testing in a variety of patients demonstrated that 96.6% of derived spirometric values were contained within an error range of +15.2% to -16.9% of spirometrically measured tidal volume and that accuracy did not change over a period of one hour. These results are encouraging and suggest that this device merits further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Cairns Base Hospital, Queensland.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brimacombe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000771:Anesthesia, Intravenous; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007385:Intermittent Positive-Pressure Ventilation; D007442:Intubation, Intratracheal; D017214:Laryngeal Masks; D008176:Lung Volume Measurements / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008297:Male; D008422:Materials Testing; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012119:Respiration / Q000502:physiology; D015656:Respiratory Mechanics / Q000502:physiology; D012826:Silicone Elastomers; D013147:Spirometry; D013990:Tidal Volume; D014159:Transducers
chemical_list: D012826:Silicone Elastomers