NI LabVIEW based breathing trainer with biofeedback and plethysmography

Abstract

National Instruments' (NI) LabVIEW-based breathing trainer with biofeedback and plethysmography is a pc-guided trainer that aims to provide support in recovering proper breathing for patients who have undergone surgical operations (cardiac, respiratory, and anything of the likes), patients with damage in the ribcage, and those having Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). It is a combined technology of plethysmography, incentive spirometer, and LabVIEW application. Through the integration of these technologies, the trainer monitors pulse rate of the patient as he/she undergoes training from the incentive spirometer and displays the result on the LabVIEW-based pc application. It also allows the patients to be guided throughout their training sessions by providing feedback and further instructions.The combination of measurement of health parameters and the biofeedback of the system is the key for the system being a breathing trainer. The monitoring of lung capacity and pulse rate exhibit the status of the oxygen intake and distribution of the user; furthermore the biofeedback teaches the user how to improve such measurable health parameters.

Characterization of Respiratory Conditions Using Labview and Digital Spirometer

“…As a whole, these results also can be used as the proof of concept that the designed portable spirometer can distinguish differences in lung conditions. These results are also in agreement with literature where the normal value of FEV1/FEV6 ratio for a healthy person must be higher than 80 percent [8]. Hence, any values that are below 80 percent can be categorized as abnormal or unhealthy lung performance.…”

“…Therefore, to profile lung conditions, patients are required to inhale and exhale through the mouthpiece with whatever effort possible. In brief, a spirometer that uses Venturi's principle, must obtain the pressure differences between the narrow and wide sections of the tube using a transducer, sent the values to amplifiers and then to the microprocessor [8] for data processing. When the airflow reaches the smaller dimension section, the speed becomes higher, hence low pressure is exerted.…”