A real-time algorithm to improve the response time of a clinical multigas analyser.

OBJECTIVE: An algorithm to improve the response time of a clinical respiratory multigas analyser is presented.
METHODS: The algorithm involves the application of a second order differential equation to the analyser gas output signals in real-time. The adjusted analyser output signals are compared with those of a quadrupole respiratory mass spectrometer sampling and analysing simultaneously.
RESULTS: Our results show a close correlation between the adjusted clinical gas analyser and the mass spectrometer signals. Lung volumes derived from a non-invasive sinusoidal inert gas forcing technique, in a model test lung, using the adjusted clinical gas analyser and the mass spectrometer signals demonstrated comparable results.
CONCLUSIONS: The algorithm provides an improvement on the relatively slow response times of the clinical gas analyser for breath-by-breath time-dependent applications. The same algorithm can also be applied to other instruments which have slow response times.