Breath Monitor Gives Advance Warning of Cardiac Arrest

Moisture from the patient's breath condenses onto a sensor that produces a signal, which is relayed to an electronic monitor, after which it displays the current respiratory rate as well as a graph of its movement in the past hour. The respiR8 alerts healthcare staff to both respiratory depression, which can occur following surgery, and to rapid breathing above 27 breaths per minute, a precursor that can occur up to 45 minutes before cardiac arrest.

The patented sensor responds rapidly and reversibly to moisture in exhaled breath; saturated with water at body temperature, the breath condenses onto the sensor and a signal is obtained. As the patient inhales, the airflow over the sensors dries off the moisture and the sensor returns to a baseline state. In this way a series of curves are obtained and the firmware calculates the breathing rate in breaths per minute. An electronic monitor captures, records, and displays the patients' respiratory rate in real-time, providing uninterrupted tracking of the respiration through the duration of use. The patient's respiratory activity can be viewed in either numeric display or in trending display. The respiR8 continuous breathing rate counter is a product of Anaxsys Technology (Send, United Kingdom), and has received the European Community (CE) marking of approval.

"Respiratory rates are considered to be one of the most important ways to measure a patient's overall condition and yet they are currently one of the least monitored, mainly due to the lack of products available in the market,” said Deryk Williams, founder and CEO of Anaxsys Technology. "We developed respiR8 through research and development with input from anesthetists and clinical staff, and it has completed 37 trials in UK hospitals and is in use at seven hospitals in the UK already, with a further 34 trials planned across the country this year.”

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