Intensive care medicine
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The purpose of this study was to build an experimental set-up to assess continuously the humidification, heating and resistance properties of heat-moisture exchangers (HMEs) under clinical conditions. ⋯ The experimental set-up described is reliable for evaluating HMEs and can also be used for future clinical evaluation of HMEs. The main advantages of this set-up over those described previously are: (i) measurements of dynamic variations of water and heat exchange; (ii) on-line measurements of expiratory, as well as inspiratory resistance.