Computational Analysis of Lung and Isolated Airway Bifurcations under Mechanical Ventilation and Normal Breathing

Mechanical ventilation is required for many patients who cannot breathe normally as a result of lung disease and other factors that result in reduced lung function. In this study, we investigated the effects of mechanical ventilation and normal breathing on whole lung geometry as well as isolated bifurcations through computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations. Results of flow characteristics (airflow velocity, wall pressure, and wall shear stress) obtained from the CFD simulations are presented. Similar flow patterns and pressure drops were obtained between the whole lung geometry and isolated bifurcations under both normal breathing and mechanical ventilation, respectively. Results obtained from simulations suggest that analyzing specific local bifurcations may be a more feasible alternative as it may reduce the computational time and numerical errors resulting from computations as compared to simulating a complex whole lung geometry. The approach presented in this study also demonstrated that analyses of isolated bifurcations gave similar flow characteristics to that of whole lung geometry. Therefore, this approach may be useful for quickly obtaining results that will assist in making clinical predictions and other applications.

Successful weaning from mechanical ventilation after Serratus Anterior Plane block in a chest trauma patient

Objectives Chest trauma is associated with severe pain, which can hamper normal breathing. Serratus Anterior Plane block (SAPB) is a novel technique, which provides analgesia for chest wall surgery. We describe an interesting clinical case about the use of SAPB to improve pain and pulmonary function in a patient with severe chest trauma. Case presentation We report the pain management and the clinical evolution of a patient in ICU, with a severe chest trauma, after performing the SAPB. Following the SAPB, the patient had a reduction in pain intensity and an improvement in both respiratory mechanics and blood gas analysis allowing a weaning from mechanical ventilator. Conclusions Pain control greatly affects mortality and morbidity in patients with chest trauma. SAPB seems to be safer and equally effective in pain control compared to epidural analgesia in patients with chest trauma.

Electrostatic Charge Retention in PVDF Nanofiber-Nylon Mesh Multilayer Structure for Effective Fine Particulate Matter Filtration for Face Masks

Currently, almost 70% of the world’s population occupies urban areas. Owing to the high population density in these regions, they are exposed to various types of air pollutants. Fine particle air pollutants (<2.5 μm) can easily invade the human respiratory system, causing health issues. For fine particulate matter filtration, the use of a face mask filter is efficient; however, its use is accompanied by a high-pressure drop, making breathing difficult. Electrostatic interactions in the filter of the face mask constitute the dominant filtration mechanism for capturing fine particulate matter; these masks are, however, significantly weakened by the high humidity in exhaled breath. In this study, we demonstrate that a filter with an electrostatically rechargeable structure operates with normal breathing air power. In our novel face mask, a filter membrane is assembled by layer-by-layer stacking of the electrospun PVDF nanofiber mat formed on a nylon mesh. Tribo/piezoelectric characteristics via multilayer structure enhance filtration performance, even under air-powered filter bending taken as a normal breathing condition. The air gap between nanofiber and mesh layers increases air diffusion time and preserves the electrostatic charges within the multi-layered nanofiber filter membrane under humid air penetration, which is advantageous for face mask applications.

Bhramari Pranayama: A Non-Pharmacological Approach Against Current Coronavirus Disease 19 Pandemic

Objective: For maintaining sound physical and mental health it is extremely beneficial for mankind to do pranayama. Prāṇāyāma bring about varying physiological and psychological effects. Pranayama is a branch of yoga practice and also considered as the fourth limb of ancient aṣṭāṅga yoga consisting of breathing techniques. This article aims to attain an insight on the effectiveness of Bhramari Pranayama (Bhr.P) on health and explores its need to be implemented in day to day life as a routine by all individuals in current covid 19 pandemic. Data source: The studies done in previous years were found using Medline, Embase, Google scholar, pub med and manual search. Studies conducted on the health effectiveness of Bhramari Pranayama specifically were included in this study. Review methods: It has been tried to keenly understand the role of Bhramari pranayam in particular and exploring some new concepts related to it in this review. Features of Bhramari Pranayama are dealt in detail with its potential effects on various systems of human body and its potentiality as a therapy tool. Result and conclusion: In the studies incorporated, the Bhramari pranayam practices have shown para-sympathetic dominance. There are some uplifting effects of Bhramari pranayam on different physiological systems. In holistic yoga therapy schedule pranayama is also an integral component which involves slowing down of the normal breathing rate along with an internal awareness and conscious inner focus on the respiration and reduces stress which finally causes improvement in ailments due to covid 19 pandemic.

Numerical Simulation of the Novel Coronavirus Spread in Commercial Aircraft Cabin

Passengers carrying the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in a commercial aircraft cabin may infect other passengers and the cabin crew. In this study, a cabin model of the seven-row Airbus A320 aircraft is constructed and meshed for simulating the SARS-CoV-2 spread in the cabin with a virus carrier using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling tool. The passengers’ infection risk is also quantified with the susceptible exposure index (SEI) method. The results show that the virus spreads to the ceiling of the cabin within 50 s of the virus carrier’s normal breathing. Coughing makes the virus spread to the front three rows with a higher mass fraction. While the high mass fraction areas always stay on the same side of the aisle as the virus carrier, the adjacent passengers and the passengers in the back two rows are affected more than the others when the virus carrier breathes normally. Spread patterns under the carrier’s two breath conditions, normal breath and cough, were numerically simulated.

Ultrasonographic assessment of diaphragmatic contraction and relaxation properties: correlations of diaphragmatic displacement with oesophageal and transdiaphragmatic pressure

Transdiaphragmatic (Pdi) and oesophageal pressures (Pes) are useful in understanding the pathophysiology of the respiratory system. They provide insight into respiratory drive, intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure, diaphragmatic fatigue and weaning failure.BackgroundThe use of Pdi and Pes in clinical practice is restricted due to the invasiveness of the technique and the cumbersome equipment needed. On the other hand, diaphragmatic displacement is non-invasively and easily assessed with M-mode ultrasound.PurposeWe observed striking similarities in shape and magnitude between M-mode diaphragmatic displacement, Pes and Pdi pressures. The study aimed to evaluate if the information provided by these two pressures could be obtained non-invasively from the diaphragmatic displacement curve.Material and methodsIn 14 consecutive intubated patients undergoing a weaning trial, simultaneous recordings of Pes and Pdi pressures and the diaphragmatic displacement were assessed while breathing spontaneously and during a sniff-like manoeuvre. Moreover, the slope of the diaphragmatic displacement curve during relaxation was compared with the maximal relaxation rate (MRR) obtained from the Pdi curve.ResultsMore than 200 breaths were analysed in pairs. Diaphragmatic displacement significantly correlated with Pdi (R2=0.33, p<0.001) and Pes (R2=0.44, p<0.001), and this correlation further improved during sniff (R2=0.47, p<0.001) and (R2=0.64, p<0.001), respectively. Additionally, a significant correlation was found between the relaxation slope derived from the diaphragmatic displacement curve and the MRR derived from the Pdi curve, both in normal breathing (R2=0.379, p<0.001) and during the sniff manoeuvre (R2=0.71, p<0.001).ConclusionsM-mode diaphragmatic displacement parameters correlate well with the ones obtained from oesophageal pressure and Pdi, particularly during sniffing. Diaphragmatic displacement assessment possibly offers an alternative non-invasive solution for understanding and clinically monitoring the diaphragmatic contractile properties and weaning failure due to diaphragmatic fatigue.

An LSTM Network for Apnea and Hypopnea Episodes Detection in Respiratory Signals

One of the most common sleep disorders is sleep apnea. It manifests itself by episodes of shallow breathing or pauses in breathing during the night. Diagnosis of this disease involves polysomnography examination, which is expensive. Alternatively, diagnostic doctors can be supported with recordings from the in-home polygraphy sensors. Furthermore, numerous attempts for providing an automated apnea episodes annotation algorithm have been made. Most of them, however, do not distinguish between apnea and hypopnea episodes. In this work, a novel solution for epoch-based annotation problem is presented. Utilizing an architecture based on the long short-term memory (LSTM) networks, the proposed model provides locations of sleep disordered breathing episodes and identifies them as either apnea or hypopnea. To achieve this, special pre- and postprocessing steps have been designed. The obtained labels can be then used for calculation of the respiratory event index (REI), which serves as a disease severity indicator. The input for the model consists of the oronasal airflow along with the thoracic and abdominal respiratory effort signals. Performance of the proposed architecture was verified on the SHHS-1 and PhysioNet Sleep databases, obtaining mean REI classification error of 9.24/10.52 with standard deviation of 11.61/7.92 (SHHS-1/PhysioNet). Normal breathing, hypopnea and apnea differentiation accuracy is assessed on both databases, resulting in the correctly classified samples percentage of 86.42%/84.35%, 49.30%/58.28% and 68.20%/69.50% for normal breathing, hypopnea and apnea classes, respectively. Overall accuracies are 80.66%/82.04%. Additionally, the effect of wake periods is investigated. The results show that the proposed model can be successfully used for both episode classification and REI estimation tasks.

Perlindungan Masyarakat Pidie Dari Covid-19 Melalui Pemakaian Masker

ABSTRAK Virus corona (COVID-19) dapat menyebar melalui percakapan dan pernapasan normal dengan orang yang terpapar. Salah satu cara untuk mencegah terjadinya penularan COVID-19 adalah melalui pemakaian masker. Hal ini sejalan dengan imbauan Pemerintah untuk menerapkan protokol kesehatan pencegahan COVID-19, salah satunya melalui pemakaian masker kain untuk masyarakat umum. Tujuan pengabdian masyarakat ini adalah meningkatkan kesadaran masyarakat Pidie untuk menggunakan masker kain ketika melakukan aktivitas di luar rumah sebagai pencegahan penyebaran COVID-19 serta memberikan penjelasan mengenai cara menggunakan masker kain yang benar di saat melakukan aktivitas di luar rumah selama masa pandemi COVID-19. Kegiatan ini berlangsung pada tanggal 22 April 2020 di Simpang 4 Kota Sigli dengan cara membagikan masker kain kepada masyarakat Pidie yang beraktivitas di luar rumah disertai dengan sosialisasi tentang cara pemakaian masker kain yang benar. Antusias masyarakat Pidie dalam menerima edukasi dan pembagian masker kain terlihat selama kegiatan ini. Diharapkan kesadaran masyarakat Pidie untuk selalu menggunakan masker kain ketika beraktivitas di luar rumah semakin meningkat sehingga dapat menurunnya resiko penyebaran COVID-19 di lingkungan masyarakat Pidie yang harus tetap beraktivitas di luar rumah. Kata Kunci : Pencegahan, COVID-19, Pemakaian Masker, Masyarakat Pidie ABSTRACT The coronavirus (COVID-19) can be spread through interacting and normal breathing with exposed people. One of the ways to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 is through wearing masks. This is in line with the government's appeal to implement health protocols for the prevention of COVID-19, one of which is through wearing cloth masks for the general public. The aim of this community service is to increase the awareness of the Pidie community to use cloth masks when carrying out activities outside the home as a prevention of the spread of COVID-19 and to provide an explanation of how to use the correct cloth masks when doing activities outside the home during the COVID-19 pandemic. This activity took place on April 22, 2020, at Simpang 4, Sigli City by distributing cloth masks to Pidie people who had activities outside the home accompanied by socialization on how to use cloth masks correctly. The enthusiasm of the Pidie community in receiving education and distributing cloth masks was seen during this activity. It is hoped that the awareness of the Pidie community to always use cloth masks when doing activities outside the home will increase so that it can reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 in the Pidie community who have to continue their activities outside the home. Keywords: Prevention, COVID-19, Use of Masks, Pidie Society