Computational tool for modeling and simulation of mechanically ventilated patients

Abstract

The mechanical ventilator se ttings in patients with respiratory diseases like chronic obstr ructive pulmonary disease (COPD) during episodes of acute r respiratory failure (ARF) is not a simple task that in most cases is successful based on the experience of physicians. This pa per describes an interactive tool based in mathematical models, developed to make easier the study of the interaction bet ween a mechanical ventilator and a patient. It describes all stages of system development, including simulated ventilatory modes, the pathologies of interest and interaction betwe en the user and the system through a graphical interface develo ped in Matlab and Simulink. The developed computational tool allows the study of most widely used ventilatory modes and its advantages in the treatment of different kind of patients. The graphical interface displays all variables and parameters in the common way of last generation mechanical ventilators do and it is totally interactive, making possible its use by clinic al personal, hiding the complexity of implemented mathemati cal models to the user. The evaluation in different clinical simulated scenes adjusts properly with recent findings in mechanical ventilation scientific literature.