Biomedical subjects

Antonio Giannella-Neto

Publications and source records attributed to Antonio Giannella-Neto.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

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.

Airway Resistance↗

PubMed2004

Comparison of computerized methods for detecting the ventilatory thresholds.

The aim of this study was to compare computerized automatic methods to detect the ventilatory threshold (VT). Thirty apparently healthy and physically active volunteers [22.5 (6.5) years; 1.72 (0.08) m; 71.9 (8.5) kg] were submitted to a progressive and maximal cycle exercise. The gas exchange was monitored breath-by-breath with a fast gas analyser. The VT and respiratory compensation (RC) were automatically detected based on the respiratory exchange ratio, the ventilatory equivalent for O2 and the ventilatory equivalent for CO2, pulmonary ventilation, end-tidal PO2 and PCO2, and v-slope. In addition, VT and RC were also determined independently by visual inspection by two experienced investigators, and the results were compared with those of the automatic procedures. The automatic VT averaged 77% of the maximal VO2 and the RC 88%. The agreement between the experienced observers was very close [mean difference: 44.4 (16.1) ml, r = 0.94, not significant]. Data were expressed as the mean value together with the standard deviation in each case. The automatic and visual inspection procedures did not present significant differences, resulting in 29.6 (29.6) ml with a reliability of r = 0.86. All methods were significantly correlated for VT and RC (r = 0.93 on average, P < 0.01). ANOVA did not show differences between either the VT methods (P = 0.131) or the RC methods (P = 0.41). In conclusion, the present study has compared several simultaneous breath-by-breath ergospirometric methods that are used to describe the anaerobic threshold, showing high confidence when compared to visual inspection. No statistical differences were found between the VT and RC techniques for physically active subjects indicating that these methods may be equally effectively employed.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

A closed-loop mechanical ventilation controller with explicit objective functions.

A closed-loop lung ventilation controller was designed, aiming to: 1) track a desired end-tidal CO2 pressure (Pet CO2), 2) find the positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) of minimum estimated respiratory system elastance (Ers,e), and 3) follow objective functions conjectured to reduce lung injury. After numerical simulations, tests were performed in six paralyzed piglets. Respiratory mechanics parameters were estimated by the recursive least squares (RLS) method. The controller incorporated a modified PI controller for Pet CO2 and a gradient descent method for PEEP. In each animal, three automated PEEP control runs were performed, as well as a manual PEEP titration of Ers,e and a multiple PetCO2 step change trial. Overall performance indexes were obtained from PEEP control, such as minimum Ers,e (37.0 +/- 4.5 cmH2O x L(-1)), time to reach the minimum Ers,e (235 +/- 182 s) and associated PEEP (6.5 +/- 1.0 cmH2O), and from Pet CO2 control, such as rise time (53 +/- 22 s), absolute overshoot/undershoot of PetCO2 (3 +/- 1 mmHg), and settling time (145 +/- 72 s). The resulting CO2 controller dynamics approximate physiological responses, and results from PEEP control were similar to those obtained by manual titration. Multiple dependencies linking the involved variables are discussed. The present controller can help to implement and evaluate objective functions that meet clinical goals.

Algorithms↗