System and similar method for estimating respiratory drive in mechanically ventilated patients

摘要

The present invention relates to a system (10) and a corresponding method for estimating the respiratory drive (R_DRIVE) of mechanically ventilated patients, and for preferably apportioning this respiratory drive into one, or more, components related to the chemical drivei.e. the drive due to the chemoreceptor responseand/or the muscular drivei.e. the contraction of respiratory muscles, for example the diaphragm. The principle of the invention is that respiratory drive can be obtained from measuring the patient's response to small changes in mechanical ventilation settings (Vt_SET), and that this can be apportioned into chemical and/or muscular effects depending upon the changes in respiratory frequency, and/or arterial or end tidal CO2 levels, and/or arterial blood p H.