Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Current issue
  • ERJ Early View
  • Past issues
  • For authors
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Author FAQs
    • Open access
    • COVID-19 submission information
  • Alerts
  • Podcasts
  • Subscriptions
  • ERS Publications
    • European Respiratory Journal
    • ERJ Open Research
    • European Respiratory Review
    • Breathe
    • ERS Books
    • ERS publications home

User menu

  • Log in
  • Subscribe
  • Contact Us
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
  • ERS Publications
    • European Respiratory Journal
    • ERJ Open Research
    • European Respiratory Review
    • Breathe
    • ERS Books
    • ERS publications home

Login

European Respiratory Society

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Current issue
  • ERJ Early View
  • Past issues
  • For authors
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Author FAQs
    • Open access
    • COVID-19 submission information
  • Alerts
  • Podcasts
  • Subscriptions

Low-cost, easy-to-build non-invasive pressure support ventilator for under-resourced regions: open source hardware description, performance and feasibility testing

Onintza Garmendia, Miguel A. Rodríguez-Lazaro, Jorge Otero, Phuong Phan, Alexandrina Stoyanova, Anh Tuan Dinh-Xuan, David Gozal, Daniel Navajas, Josep M. Montserrat, Ramon Farré
European Respiratory Journal 2020; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.00846-2020
Onintza Garmendia
1Unitat de Biofísica i Bioenginyeria, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
2Sleep Lab, Hospital Clinic, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Miguel A. Rodríguez-Lazaro
1Unitat de Biofísica i Bioenginyeria, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jorge Otero
1Unitat de Biofísica i Bioenginyeria, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
3CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias, Madrid, Spain
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Phuong Phan
4Hue Central Hospital, Hue, Vietnam
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Alexandrina Stoyanova
5Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Anh Tuan Dinh-Xuan
6Service de Physiologie-Explorations Fonctionnelles, Hôpital Cochin, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Paris, France
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Anh Tuan Dinh-Xuan
David Gozal
7Department of Child Health, The University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for David Gozal
Daniel Navajas
1Unitat de Biofísica i Bioenginyeria, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
3CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias, Madrid, Spain
8Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Barcelona, Spain
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Josep M. Montserrat
2Sleep Lab, Hospital Clinic, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
3CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias, Madrid, Spain
9Institut d'Investigacions Biomediques August Pi Sunyer, Barcelona, Spain
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ramon Farré
1Unitat de Biofísica i Bioenginyeria, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
3CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias, Madrid, Spain
9Institut d'Investigacions Biomediques August Pi Sunyer, Barcelona, Spain
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: rfarre@ub.edu
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

Aim Current pricing of commercial mechanical ventilators in low/middle-income countries (LMICs) markedly restricts their availability, and consequently a considerable number of patients with acute/chronic respiratory failure cannot be adequately treated. Our aim was to design and test an affordable and easy-to-build non-invasive bilevel pressure ventilator to allow reducing the serious shortage of ventilators in LMICs.

Methods The ventilator was built using off-the-shelf materials available via e-commerce and was based on a high-pressure blower, two pressure transducers and an Arduino Nano controller with a digital display (total retail cost <75 US$), with construction details open source provided for free replication. The ventilator was evaluated (and compared with a commercially available device (Lumis-150, Resmed): a) in the bench using an actively breathing patient simulator mimicking a range of obstructive/restrictive disease and b) in 12 healthy volunteers wearing a high airway resistance and thoracic/abdominal bands to mimic obstructive/restrictive patients.

Results The designed ventilator provided inspiratory/expiratory pressures up to 20/10 cmH2O, respectively, with no faulty triggering or cycling both in the bench test and in volunteers. Breathing difficulty score rated (1–10 scale) by the loaded breathing subjects was significantly (p<0.005) decreased from 5.45±1.68 without support to 2.83±1.66 when using the prototype ventilator, which showed no difference with the commercial device (2.80±1.48; p=1.000).

Conclusion The low-cost, easy-to-build non-invasive ventilator performs similarly as a high-quality commercial device, with its open-source hardware description, will allow for free replication and use in LMICs, facilitating application of this life-saving therapy to patients who otherwise could not be treated.

Footnotes

This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the European Respiratory Journal. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJ online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.

Conflict of interest: Dr. Garmendia has nothing to disclose.

Conflict of interest: Dr. Otero has nothing to disclose.

Conflict of interest: Dr. Phan has nothing to disclose.

Conflict of interest: Dr. Stoyanova has nothing to disclose.

Conflict of interest: Dr. Dinh-Xuan has nothing to disclose.

Conflict of interest: Dr. Gozal has nothing to disclose.

Conflict of interest: Dr. Navajas has nothing to disclose.

Conflict of interest: Dr. Montserrat has nothing to disclose.

Conflict of interest: Dr. Farré reports other from ResMed, other from ANTADIR, outside the submitted work.

Conflict of interest: Dr. Rodríguez-Lazaro has nothing to disclose.

This is a PDF-only article. Please click on the PDF link above to read it.

  • Received March 25, 2020.
  • Accepted April 8, 2020.
  • Copyright ©ERS 2020
View Abstract
PreviousNext
Back to top
View this article with LENS
Vol 57 Issue 1 Table of Contents
European Respiratory Journal: 57 (1)
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on European Respiratory Society .

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Low-cost, easy-to-build non-invasive pressure support ventilator for under-resourced regions: open source hardware description, performance and feasibility testing
(Your Name) has sent you a message from European Respiratory Society
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the European Respiratory Society web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Print
Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation Tools
Low-cost, easy-to-build non-invasive pressure support ventilator for under-resourced regions: open source hardware description, performance and feasibility testing
Onintza Garmendia, Miguel A. Rodríguez-Lazaro, Jorge Otero, Phuong Phan, Alexandrina Stoyanova, Anh Tuan Dinh-Xuan, David Gozal, Daniel Navajas, Josep M. Montserrat, Ramon Farré
European Respiratory Journal Jan 2020, 2000846; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.00846-2020

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero

Share
Low-cost, easy-to-build non-invasive pressure support ventilator for under-resourced regions: open source hardware description, performance and feasibility testing
Onintza Garmendia, Miguel A. Rodríguez-Lazaro, Jorge Otero, Phuong Phan, Alexandrina Stoyanova, Anh Tuan Dinh-Xuan, David Gozal, Daniel Navajas, Josep M. Montserrat, Ramon Farré
European Respiratory Journal Jan 2020, 2000846; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.00846-2020
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Technorati logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Connotea logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Full Text (PDF)

Jump To

  • Article
    • Abstract
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

More in this TOC Section

  • Serum and Pulmonary Uric Acid in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
  • A-to-I editing of miR-200b-3p in airway cells is associated with moderate-to-severe asthma
  • Functional lower airways genomic profiling of the microbiome to capture active microbial metabolism
Show more Original article

Related Articles

Navigate

  • Home
  • Current issue
  • Archive

About the ERJ

  • Journal information
  • Editorial board
  • Reviewers
  • CME
  • Press
  • Permissions and reprints
  • Advertising

The European Respiratory Society

  • Society home
  • myERS
  • Privacy policy
  • Accessibility

ERS publications

  • European Respiratory Journal
  • ERJ Open Research
  • European Respiratory Review
  • Breathe
  • ERS books online
  • ERS Bookshop

Help

  • Feedback

For authors

  • Instructions for authors
  • Submit a manuscript
  • ERS author centre

For readers

  • Alerts
  • Subjects
  • Podcasts
  • RSS

Subscriptions

  • Accessing the ERS publications

Contact us

European Respiratory Society
442 Glossop Road
Sheffield S10 2PX
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 114 2672860
Email: journals@ersnet.org

ISSN

Print ISSN:  0903-1936
Online ISSN: 1399-3003

Copyright © 2021 by the European Respiratory Society