Personal Lung Function Monitoring Devices for Asthma Patients

Asthma affects over 300 million people worldwide. Asthmatics experience difficulty in breathing and airflow obstruction caused by inflammation and constriction of the airways. Home monitoring of lung function is the preferred course of action to give physicians and asthma patients a chance to control the disease jointly. Thus, it is important to develop accurate and efficient asthma monitoring devices that are easy for patients to use. While classic spirometry is currently the best way to capture a complete picture of airflow obstruction and lung function, the machines are bulky and generally require supervision. Portable peak flow meters are available but are inconvenient to use. There also exist no portable inexpensive exhaled breath biomarker devices commercially available to simultaneously measure concentrations of multiple chemical biomarkers. We have created a user-friendly, accurate, and portable external mobile device accessory that collects spirometry, peak expiratory flow, exhaled nitric oxide, carbon monoxide, and oxygen concentration information from patients after two breath maneuvers. We have also developed a software application that records and stores the gathered test information and e-mails the results to a physician. Telemetric capabilities help physicians to track asthma symptoms and lung function over time, which allow physicians the opportunity to make appropriate changes in a patient's medication regimen more quickly.