APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MONITORING THE DEGREE OF INTEGRATION BETWEEN THE FUNCTIONS OF THE HEART AND THE LUNGS, AND THE THERAPEUTIC SUCCESS OF RESUSCITATIVE INTERVENTIONS
A method, system and apparatus for assessing the coupling between lung perfusion and ventilation in a patient who is mechanically ventilated or who is breathing spontaneously through a conventional artificial airway is provided. Embodiments of the apparatus comprise an adaptor configured to fit between the artificial airway and mechanical ventilator (or to attach to the free end of the artificial airway in cases where the patient is breathing spontaneously), a measuring chamber in constant fluid communication with the adaptor via one or more measuring chamber sampling ports, and a monitoring unit where data obtained from temperature and relative humidity sensors located in the measuring is calibrated, sampled, logged and analyzed together with anthropometric patient data provided by the operator in order to calculate and/or derive a novel cardio-pulmonary coupling index termed "Qi" as described, and to enable ongoing diagnostic cardio-pulmonary monitoring of a patient by comparing changes in the patients Qi index during a monitoring interval. The Qi index is expressed in non-dimensional units, and is displayed relative to a range of "normal" values defined with reference to values that are commonly observed at rest in persons in good general health and who generally match a given patient in gender, age and body size, and/or as a specific patients baseline values at rest or under stress at the outset of a monitoring interval.
