Device for pulmonary function testing and method therefor

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device for pulmonary function testing and a method therefor which diagnose pulmonary function on the basis of: the lung capacity of a subject represented by a respiration parameter; and a chest image obtained from impedance data of the chest of the subject. Accordingly, the present invention suggests "spriotomometry" whereby a global variable measured from the mouth of the subject and a local variable obtained by imaging the inside of the lung of the subject are processed and interpreted together, by employing the conventional spirometer and electrical impedance tomography (EIT) method together.

Description

technical field [0001] The present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for lung function testing, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for lung function testing for diagnosing lung function based on vital capacity from breathing parameters of a subject and chest images from impedance data. Background technique [0002] A diagnostic spirometer refers to a medical device for diagnosing a subject's lung function by measuring the amount of gas (breathing parameters) inhaled or exhaled into the subject's lungs. To test lung function, diagnostic spirometers measure lung capacity by electrically integrating directly the output from an airflow transducer connected to the patient's mouth after covering the patient's nose. [0003] In this case, the diagnostic variables to be obtained by integrating the output include forced vital capacity (FVC), forced vital capacity in 1 second (FEV), peak expiratory flow (PEF), forced mid-expiratory flow (FET), FEV / FVC ratio, e...

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Problems solved by technology

Such a method is a non-invasive measurement, but has the limitation of not knowing how much air passing through the mouth is divided into each lung

[0005] Also, there is a limitation of not being able to know how the air inhaled into each lung of the subject is distributed among the lungs

[0006] In other words, conventional spirometers measure the bulk volume and bulk flow of air at the subject's mouth, do not provide information about the local volume and local flow at a certain region within the lungs, and thus have difficulty making conclusions about the subject's A more accurate diagnosis of the problem of lung function

[0007] Also, simple spirometers need to measure the change in air volume between maximal inhalation and exhalation, but the elderly and infirm and some subjects have difficulty performing maximal inhalation and exhalation

Therefore, there is a problem of reducing the accuracy of measurement and analysis

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