A portable triboelectric spirometer for wireless pulmonary function monitoring

Authors: Xu, Qinghao;

Fang, Yunsheng;

Jing, Qingshen;

Hu, Ning;

Lin, Ke;

Pan, Yifan;

Xu, Lin;

Gao, Haiqi;

Yuan, Ming;

Chu, Liang;

Ma, Yanwen;

Xie, Yannan ;

Chen, Jun;

Wang, Lianhui

Source: Biosensors and Bioelectronics

Full text

: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2021.113329

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a severe acute respiratory syndrome infection has spread rapidly across the world since its emergence in 2019 and drastically altered our way of life. Patients who have recovered from COVID-19 may still face persisting respiratory damage from the virus, necessitating long-term supervision after discharge to closely assess pulmonary function during rehabilitation. Therefore, developing portable spirometers for pulmonary function tests is of great significance for convenient home-based monitoring during recovery. Here, we propose a wireless, portable pulmonary function monitor for rehabilitation care after COVID-19. It is composed of a breath-to-electrical (BTE) sensor, a signal processing circuit, and a Bluetooth communication unit. The BTE sensor, with a compact size and light weight of 2.5 cm3 and 1.8 g respectively, is capable of converting respiratory biomechanical motions into considerable electrical signals. The output signal stability is greater than 93% under 35%–81% humidity, which allows for ideal expiration airflow sensing. Through a wireless communication circuit system, the signals can be received by a mobile terminal and processed into important physiological parameters, such as forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC). The FEV1/FVC ratio is then calculated to further evaluate pulmonary function of testers. Through these measurement methods, the acquired pulmonary function parameters are shown to exhibit high accuracy (>97%) in comparison to a commercial spirometer. The practical design of the self-powered flow spirometer presents a low-cost and convenient method for pulmonary function monitoring during rehabilitation from COVID-19.

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Cite as

Xu, Q., Fang, Y., Jing, Q., Hu, N., Lin, K., Pan, Y., Xu, L., Gao, H., Yuan, M., Chu, L., Ma, Y., Xie, Y., Chen, J. & Wang, L. 2021, 'A portable triboelectric spirometer for wireless pulmonary function monitoring', Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 187, article no: 113329. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2021.113329

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2021.113329

Repository URI: https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/307105/