Systems, methods, and/or apparatuses for non-invasive monitoring of respiratory parameters in sleep disordered breathing
View Patent ↗In certain example embodiments, an air delivery system includes a controllable flow generator operable to generate a supply of pressurized breathable gas to be provided to a patient for treatment and a pulse oximeter. In certain example embodiments, the pulse oximeter is configured to determine, for example, a measure of patient effort during a treatment period and provide a patient effort signal for input to control operation of the flow generator. Oximeter plethysmogram data may be used, for example, to determine estimated breath phase; sleep structure information; autonomic improvement in response to therapy; information relating to relative breathing effort, breathing frequency, and/or breathing phase; vasoconstrictive response, etc. Such data may be useful in diagnostic systems.
1. An air delivery system, comprising:
a controllable flow generator operable to generate a supply of pressurized breathable gas to be provided to a patient for treatment;
a pulse oximeter configured to generate, during a treatment period, a patient effort signal for input to control operation of the flow generator; and
a controller configured to derive an estimated breath phase of the patient independent of measured flow, based at least in part on the patient effort signal, wherein the controller comprises one or more predictive breath-phase algorithms to improve synchrony based at least in part on the patient effort signal and/or the estimated breath phase and the controller is configured to improve synchrony when inspiratory flow is not an accurate indicator of commencement of inspiratory effort.
2. An air delivery system, comprising:
a controllable flow generator operable to generate a supply of pressurized breathable gas to be provided to a patient for treatment;
a pulse oximeter configured to generate, during a treatment period, a patient effort signal for input to control operation of the flow generator; and
a controller configured to derive an estimated breath phase of the patient independent of measured flow, based at least in part on the patient effort signal,
wherein the pulse oximeter is configured to pre-configure and/or auto-configure one or more of backup rate, minimum machine timing, and maximum inspiratory timing prior to therapy.
3. A method for treating sleep disordered breathing, said method comprising:
deriving a pulse oximeter signal from a patient;
processing the pulse oximeter signal to generate a patient effort signal indicative of respiratory rate;
deriving an estimated breath phase of the patient independent of measured flow based at least in part on the patient effort signal;
analyzing the patient effort signal and/or the estimated breath phase with predictive breath-phase algorithms to improve synchrony; and
improving the synchrony when inspiratory flow is not an accurate indicator of the start of inspiratory effort.
4. A method for treating sleep disordered breathing, said method comprising:
deriving a pulse oximeter signal from a patient;
processing the pulse oximeter signal to generate a patient effort signal indicative of respiratory rate;
deriving an estimated breath phase of the patient independent of measured flow based at least in part on the patient effort signal; and
pre-configuring and/or auto-configuring one or more of backup rate, minimum machine timing, and maximum inspiratory timing via a pulse oximeter probe prior to therapy.
5. A respiratory effort monitoring apparatus, comprising:
a pulse oximeter configured to derive a pulse oximeter signal; and
a signal processor configured to receive the pulse oximeter signal and generate a patient effort signal indicative of respiratory rate;
wherein the signal processor is configured to derive an estimated breath phase of the patient independent of measured flow based at least in part on the patient effort signal, and the signal processor is configured to improve synchrony when inspiratory flow is not an accurate indicator of commencement of inspiratory effort.