Method and system for analyzing respiratory tract air flow
First Claim
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1. A method for determining airflow in a portion of a respiratory tract comprising:
- determining an average acoustic energy in a region of a body surface overlying the portion of the respiratory tract,wherein the average acoustic energy is determined in a process comprising;
(a) obtaining signals P(xi,t) from N transducers placed at predetermined locations xi for i from 1 to N in the region of the body surface;
(b) determining an average acoustic energy (x,ti,ti+1) over one or more time intervals ti to ti+1, at a plurality of locations x in the region in a calculation involving at least one of the signals P(xi,t); and
(c) integrating the functions (x,ti,ti+1) with respect to x, in order to obtain an airflow in the region during each of the time intervals.
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Abstract
A method for determining airflow in a portion of a respiratory tract comprising determining a total acoustic energy in a region of a body surface overlying the portion of the respiratory tract. The airflow may be integrated over a time interval in order to determine an air volume that has flowed in the portion of the respiratory tract during the time interval. A graph of the flow rate as a function of the volume may be displayed and analyzed as in spirometry. The invention also provides a system for carrying out the method.
27 Citations
10 Claims
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1. A method for determining airflow in a portion of a respiratory tract comprising:
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determining an average acoustic energy in a region of a body surface overlying the portion of the respiratory tract, wherein the average acoustic energy is determined in a process comprising; (a) obtaining signals P(xi,t) from N transducers placed at predetermined locations xi for i from 1 to N in the region of the body surface; (b) determining an average acoustic energy (x,ti,ti+1) over one or more time intervals ti to ti+1, at a plurality of locations x in the region in a calculation involving at least one of the signals P(xi,t); and (c) integrating the functions (x,ti,ti+1) with respect to x, in order to obtain an airflow in the region during each of the time intervals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
with respect to time, in order to obtain a total volume of air that has flowed in the region from t0 to tk, for each k from 1 to m.
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4. The method according to claim 3 further comprising displaying on a display device a plot of the flow rate
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x P ~ ( x , t i , t i + 1 ) as a function of the volume
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5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the region is a single lung or a lobe of a lung.
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6. A system for determining airflow in a portion of a respiratory tract comprising:
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a processor configured to determine an average acoustic energy in a region of a body surface overlying the portion of the respiratory tract, wherein the average acoustic energy is determined in a process comprising; (a) obtaining signals P(xi,t) from N transducers placed at predetermined locations xi for i from 1 to N in the region of the body surface; (b) determining an average acoustic energy (x,ti,ti+1) over one or more time intervals ti to ti+1, at a plurality of locations x in the region in a calculation involving at least one of the signals P(xi,t) and (c) integrating the functions (x,ti,ti+1) with respect to x, in order to obtain an airflow in the region during each of the time intervals. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
with respect to time, in order to obtain a total volume of air that has flowed in the region from t0 to tk, for each k from 1 to m.
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10. The system according to claim 9 further comprising display device and wherein the processor is further configured to displaying on the display device a plot of the flow rate
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x P ~ ( x , t i , t i + 1 ) as a function of the volume
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Specification