Desenvolvimento de um aparelho portátil que emprega a técnica de oscilações forçadas para estudo do sistema respiratório

Abstract

The use of forced oscillation technique (FOT) to study the mechanical properties of the respiratory system was proposed by Dubois (1956). This technique allows studying the mechanical behavior of the respiratory system, and from models, extracting features of pulmonary mechanics that would be barely noticeable by other methods. The object of this work was to build a portable device that uses the forced oscillation technique so that tests could be performed in locations with limited space. The device of TOF2 was remodeled from an early version called TOF1. Its components are integrated by replacing the set of equipment, power, signal generator, pressure transducers and data acquisition board with a single portable system. It was also developed a processing system for the collected data. In the validation process of TOF2 the pressure transducers were calibrated, the acquisition and data processing approach were defined, a standard resistance-inertance-compliance (RIC) model was built (analogue), and compared to the known value of impedance with the measured values in TOF2. The resulting procedure is analogous to that used in characterization of electric resistances. The reproducibility of the resistance measurements with TOF2 coupled to the analogue, along with the coherence function was greater than 95%, which indicates a good reliability. We conclude that the developed device, called TOF2, includes all the instrumentation needed to perform the measurements of a conventional TOF instrument, and meets the general recommendations for the design and implementation of the measurement system.