A portable triboelectric spirometer for wireless pulmonary function monitoring

Xu, Q. et al. (2021) A portable triboelectric spirometer for wireless pulmonary function monitoring. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 187, 113329. (doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2021.113329) (PMID:34020223) (PMCID:PMC8118703)

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a severe acute respiratory syndrome infection has spread rapidly across the world since its emergence in 2019 and drastically altered our way of life. Patients who have recovered from COVID-19 may still face persisting respiratory damage from the virus, necessitating long-term supervision after discharge to closely assess pulmonary function during rehabilitation. Therefore, developing portable spirometers for pulmonary function tests is of great significance for convenient home-based monitoring during recovery. Here, we propose a wireless, portable pulmonary function monitor for rehabilitation care after COVID-19. It is composed of a breath-to-electrical (BTE) sensor, a signal processing circuit, and a Bluetooth communication unit. The BTE sensor, with a compact size and light weight of 2.5 cm3 and 1.8 g respectively, is capable of converting respiratory biomechanical motions into considerable electrical signals. The output signal stability is greater than 93% under 35%–81% humidity, which allows for ideal expiration airflow sensing. Through a wireless communication circuit system, the signals can be received by a mobile terminal and processed into important physiological parameters, such as forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC). The FEV1/FVC ratio is then calculated to further evaluate pulmonary function of testers. Through these measurement methods, the acquired pulmonary function parameters are shown to exhibit high accuracy (>97%) in comparison to a commercial spirometer. The practical design of the self-powered flow spirometer presents a low-cost and convenient method for pulmonary function monitoring during rehabilitation from COVID-19.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: L. W. and Y. X. acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61974071, 61601394), National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFA0205302), Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD, YX030003), Jiangsu Provincial Key Research and Development Program (BE2018732), Jiangsu Shuangchuang Talent Program, the Science and Technology Innovation Project for Overseas Students in Nanjing, StartUp Fund from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications (No. NY218151 and NY218157). J. C. acknowledges the Henry Samueli School of Engineering & Applied Science and the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California, Los Angeles for the startup support. J.C. also acknowledges the 2020 Okawa Foundation Research Grant.
• Keywords: COVID-19, self-powered sensors, triboelectric nanogenerators, spirometers, pulmonary function tests.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Jing, Dr Qingshen
• Authors: Xu, Q., Fang, Y., Jing, Q., Hu, N., Lin, K., Pan, Y., Xu, L., Gao, H., Yuan, M., Chu, L., Ma, Y., Xie, Y., Chen, J., and Wang, L.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: Biosensors and Bioelectronics
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0956-5663
• ISSN (Online): 1873-4235
• Published Online: 14 May 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V.
• First Published: First published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics 187:113329
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy