Improved Acoustic Plethysmograph System for Noninvasive Measurement of Pulmonary Function

CDC researchers have developed a novel acoustic whole body plethysmograph (AWBP) that allows measurement of tidal volume in lab animals, independent of gas compression in the lung. This system provides particular advantages over the traditional whole body plethysmograph (WBP) when measuring model animals with increased gas compression due to increased airway resistance or increased acceleration in the breathing pattern.

Measurement of tidal volume in conscious, unrestrained mice has traditionally been performed using WBP. An animal is placed in a chamber where pressure changes due to respiration are observed, which are then related to tidal volume. Although the effects of gas compression on the WBP signal of normal mice may be negligible, gas compression in mice with altered breathing pattern and/or increased airway resistance can produce significant errors in the measurement of tidal volume. A major advantage of this novel AWBP technology is the ability to measure the tidal volume signal independent of gas compression. This is particularly useful when measuring mice that have been exposed to a respiratory irritant or toxin that increases airway resistance or the frequency content of the breathing pattern. Further, with slight hardware and software modifications the system may also be used to measure specific airway resistances.

Potential Commercial Applications:		Competitive Advantages:
Measurement of tidal volume, respiratory rate, and other breath rate parameters of laboratory animals Research and animal modeling tool for in vivo pulmonary investigations of therapeutics efficacy and studying certain infectious diseases Particularly useful when measuring animals exposed to a respiratory irritant or toxin that increases either airway resistance or the frequency Noninvasive measurement of specific airway resistance and restrictions in an unrestrained animal		System allows fast, efficient, noninvasive measurement of lab animal pulmonary function for numerous inhalation, toxicology research studies Measures tidal volume signal independent of gas compression, increasing accuracy when gathering data from animals with altered breathing patterns and/or elevated airway resistance System operates at a fixed frequency, and automatically tracks the change in sound amplitude as a function of time due to change in lung volume

Development Stage:

• In vivo data available (animal)
• In situ data available (on-site)
• Prototype

Inventors:

Jeffrey Reynolds (CDC)  ➽ more inventions...

David Frazer (CDC)  ➽ more inventions...


Intellectual Property:
U.S. Pat: 8,328,729 issued 2012-12-11
US Application No. 12/168,829

Publications:
Reynolds JS, et al. PMID 16897419
Reynolds JS, et al. PMID 18450981
Daubenspeck JA , et al. PMID 17962574

Licensing Contact:
Karen Surabian, J.D., M.B.A.
Email: karen.surabian@nih.gov
Phone: 301-594-9719

OTT Reference No: E-290-2013-0
Updated: Jun 9, 2014