[Modeling the noninvasive bi-level positive airway pressure ventilation therapy system and simulated application]

Without artificial airway though oral, nasal or airway incision, the bi-level positive airway pressure (Bi-PAP) has been widely employed for respiratory patients. In an effort to investigate the therapeutic effects and measures for the respiratory patients under the noninvasive Bi-PAP ventilation, a therapy system model was designed for virtual ventilation experiments. In this system model, it includes a sub-model of noninvasive Bi-PAP respirator, a sub-model of respiratory patient, and a sub-model of the breath circuit and mask. And based on the Matlab Simulink, a simulation platform for the noninvasive Bi-PAP therapy system was developed to conduct the virtual experiments in simulated respiratory patient with no spontaneous breathing (NSB), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The simulated outputs such as the respiratory flows, pressures, volumes, etc, were collected and compared to the outputs which were obtained in the physical experiments with the active servo lung. By statistically analyzed with SPSS, the results demonstrated that there was no significant difference ( P > 0.1) and was in high similarity ( R > 0.7) between the data collected in simulations and physical experiments. The therapy system model of noninvasive Bi-PAP is probably applied for simulating the practical clinical experiment, and maybe conveniently applied to study the technology of noninvasive Bi-PAP for clinicians.