Effects of filtering and delays on the estimates of a nonlinear respiratory mechanics model.

Estimation of mechanical properties of the respiratory system may be disturbed by instrumentation and physical set-up. The effects of lowpass filtering, filter mismatch and inter-channel delay in the digital converter are assessed on numerically simulated signals from a nonlinear model of the respiratory system. Large biases in model parameter estimates (up to about -300% for some parameters) were caused by these instrumental interferences and were reduced by including an inertance in the retrieved model. The results reinforce the importance of a careful evaluation of the instrumental set-up used in physiological measurements.