The present invention relates to respiratory function testing system and respiratory function testing method thereof, and more particularly to respiratory function testing system and respiratory function testing method thereof utilizing ultrasonic signals generated by exhaled air of a user.
Current common spirometry on the market is mainly plastic pressure indicator based or turbine based. For a spirometry with plastic pressure indicator based, the pressure generated by the exhalation blowing into the spirometry is for driving the sensor/receptor disposed at the end or side of the spirometry to generate a corresponding expiratory signal. This type of spirometry has an uncomplicated structure; however, it is impossible to continuously monitor the expiratory signal within one expiratory period. For a spirometry with turbine based, the pressure generated by the exhalation blowing into the spirometry is for driving the fan disposed in the spirometry to rotate. Through measuring the current generated by the rotating fans or using infrared technology, the cycles or speed of the rotations of the fans is counted; and therefore, data related to respiratory functions within one expiratory period is calculated based on the number or speed of the rotations of the fans.
One objective of the present invention is to provide a respiratory function testing system, wherein the respiratory function testing technical adopted by the respiratory function testing system is different from the spirometry mentioned in BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a respiratory function testing method applicable to the respiratory function testing system.
The present invention provides a respiratory function testing system, which includes an air transforming device, a sound reception device and an operation device. The air transforming device is configured to collect exhaled air for a predetermined period and generate a full-range sound signal according to the collected exhaled air. The full-range sound signal at least contains an ultrasonic signal. The sound reception device is configured to receive and record the full-range sound signal. The operation device is in communication with the sound reception device and is configured to receive and compute the ultrasonic signal in the full-range sound signal recorded by the sound reception device to calculate respiratory function parameters.
The present invention provides a respiratory function testing method applicable to the above respiratory function testing system. The respiratory function testing method includes: collecting exhaled air for a predetermined period and generating a full-range sound signal according to the collected exhaled air, wherein the full-range sound signal at least contains an ultrasonic signal; receiving and recording the full-range sound signal; and computing the ultrasonic signal in the full-range sound signal to generate corresponding respiratory function parameters.
In summary, by sequentially configuring the air transforming device to collect exhaled air for a predetermined period and generate a full-range sound signal according to the collected exhaled air, configuring the sound reception device to receive and record the full-range sound signal and configuring the operation device to receive and compute the ultrasonic signal contained in the full-range sound signal to generate a respiratory function parameter, the respiratory function testing system and the respiratory function testing method of the present invention can determine whether a user has a normal respiratory function.
Other advantages, objectives and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description referring to the attached drawings.
The present invention will now be described more specifically with reference to the following embodiments. It is to be noted that the following descriptions of preferred embodiments of this invention are presented herein for purpose of illustration and description only. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to be limited to the precise form disclosed.
In the present embodiment, the sound reception device 11 is a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) or a microphone. Specifically, the sound reception device 11 is a highly-sensitive microphone capable of receiving and recording full-range sound signals and is selected from a group consisting of: omnidirectional microphone, cardioid microphone, hypercardioid microphone, shotgun microphone and bi-directional microphone. Because of having sensitive sound reception functions, each one of the microphones in the aforementioned group can be used to receive and record full-range sound signals and store the recorded full-range sound signal as an audio file, wherein the audio length of the audio file is the aforementioned predetermined period. The operation device 12 has a communicating connection with the sound reception device 11. The operation device 12 is configured to receive and compute the ultrasonic signal contained in the full-range sound signal recorded by the sound reception device 11 to generate a respiratory function parameter. In the present embodiment, the aforementioned communicating connection between the sound reception device 11 and the operation device 12 may be implemented via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi (wireless) means, though which the operation device 12 can receive the audio file stored by the sound reception device 11. In the present embodiment, the operation device 12 is an electronic device having computing capability such as smart phone or tablet, and the present invention is not limited thereto.
In one embodiment, the air transforming device 10 includes one or more silent whistles or Galton's whistles (not shown). The silent whistle or Galton's whistle is configured to generate the ultrasound signal according to the exhaled air while the user exhales air toward the air transforming device 10. The air transforming device 10 may include other types of ultrasound generator devices as long as such device is capable of generating the ultrasound signal according to the exhaled air of the user, and the present invention is not limited thereto.
After all of the PEF, FEV1 and FVC are calculated, the condition of the respiratory functions of the user can be determined through comparing the calculated PEF, FEV1 and FVC with respective determined standard values. In general, the standard value of PEF is higher than 80% and the standard value of ratio of FVC to FEV1 (FVC/FEV1) is higher than 70%. Therefore, for an asthma patient, it is determined that the patient has a proper treatment if the variation (%) of PEF is lower than 20%; it is determined that the patient may need to increase the amount of medicine if the variation of PEF is in a range between 20%-30%; and it is determined that the patient is having asthma and may need an emergency treatment if the variation of PEF is higher than 30%. Herein the variation (%) of PEF is referred as: ((the maximum PEF)−(the minimum PEF))/((the maximum PEF)+(the minimum PEF))*100%.
Refer to Table 1, which is a comparison between the PEF derived from the respiratory function testing system of the present invention and the PEF derived from the spirometry certified by FDA (hereunder is referred as a comparative example). As shown in Table 1, there are thirteen participants involved to the comparison; specifically, each one of the participants repeats the spirometric experiments three times for both of the systems of the present invention and the comparative example. The results of experiments indicate that all of the error rates of the system of the present invention relative to the comparative example are lower than 7%. Therefore, it is shown that the accuracy of the respiratory function testing system of the present invention is as good as that of the spirometry certified by FDA.
In summary, by sequentially configuring the air transforming device to collect exhaled air for a predetermined period and generate a full-range sound signal according to the collected exhaled air, configuring the sound reception device to receive and record the full-range sound signal and configuring the operation device to receive and compute the ultrasonic signal contained in the full-range sound signal to generate a respiratory function parameter, the respiratory function testing system and the respiratory function testing method of the present invention can determine whether a user has a normal respiratory function.
While the invention has been described in terms of what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention needs not be limited to the disclosed embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims which are to be accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structures.
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
62203951 | Aug 2015 | US |