Journal of clinical monitoring and computing
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J Clin Monit Comput · Apr 2007
New metabolic lung simulator: development, description, and validation.
Indirect calorimetry, the determination of airway carbon dioxide elimination (V(CO2),and oxygen uptake (V(O2)), can be used to non-invasively detect non-steady state perturbations of gas kinetics and mirror tissue metabolism. Validation of monitoring instruments in patients is difficult because there is no standard reference measurement, a wide range of physiologic values is required, and steady state is difficult to achieve and confirm. We present the development, critical details, and validation of a practical bench setup of a metabolic lung simulator, to generate a wide range of accurate, adjustable, and stable reference values of V(CO2) and V(O2), for development, calibration, and validation of indirect calorimetry methodology and clinical monitors. ⋯ The comprehensive description details the solutions to many problems, to help future investigations of metabolic gas exchange and contribute to improved patient monitoring during anesthesia and critical care medicine.