Experimental data of the Multivent System for Non-invasive Ventilation

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a severe global problem of ventilator shortage. Placing multiple patients on a single ventilator (ventilator sharing) or dual patient ventilation has been proposed and conducted to increase the cure efficiency for ventilated patients. However, the ventilator-sharing method needs to use the same ventilator settings for all the patients, which cannot meet the ventilation needs of different patients. Besides, it may bring the risk of hyperventilation or hypoventilation. Therefore, a novel multivent system for non-invasive ventilation has been proposed in this study. The close loop system consists of the proportional valve and the flow-pressure sensor can regulate the airway pressure and flow for each patient. Multiple ventilation circuits can be combined in parallel to meet patients' ventilation demands simultaneously. Meanwhile, the mathematical model of the multivent system is established and validated through experiments. The experiments for different inspired positive airway pressure (IPAP), expired positive airway pressure (EPAP), inspiratory expiratory ratio (I:E), and breath per minute (BPM) have been conducted and analyzed to test the performance of the multivent system. The results show that the multivent system can realize the biphasic positive airway pressure ventilation mode in non-invasive ventilation without interfering among the three ventilation circuits, no matter the change of IPAP, EPAP, I:E, and BPM.

COVID-19疫情引发了全球范围内的呼吸机短缺这一严重问题。将多名患者安置于单一呼吸机（呼吸机共享）或双患者呼吸机通风已被提出并实施，以提升呼吸机患者的治愈效率。然而，呼吸机共享方法需对所有患者使用相同的呼吸机设置，这无法满足不同患者的通气需求。此外，它可能带来过度通气或通气不足的风险。因此，本研究提出了一种新型的多呼吸机非侵入性通气系统。该闭环系统包括比例阀和流量压力传感器，能够调节每位患者的气道压力和流量。多个通气回路可以并联组合，以满足患者的通气需求。同时，建立了多呼吸机系统的数学模型，并通过实验进行了验证。针对不同的吸入正气道压力（IPAP）、呼出正气道压力（EPAP）、吸气呼气比（I:E）和每分钟呼吸次数（BPM）的实验已开展并进行分析，以测试多呼吸机系统的性能。结果显示，多呼吸机系统能够在非侵入性通气中实现双相正气道压力通风模式，且在IPAP、EPAP、I:E和BPM的变化下，三个通气回路之间无相互干扰。