A portable ultrasonic spirometer to enhance diagnostic capacity and studies on respiratory physiolog
Abstract
The Navy has a long-standing history of marine mammal research to both support their Marine Mammal program and to better understand, marine mammal biology for mitigation of potential negative impacts caused by Naval exercises. While programs have been designed to, enhance the ecology, population levels, and distribution of selected species, studies in ecophysiology have mostly focused on under,standing communication and hearing issues. As air breathing animals, marine mammals rely on a functional respiratory system for supp,lying sufficient O2 and removing the CO2 produced from aerobic metabolism. Theoretical models have suggested that variation in blood, flow and gas exchange during diving are the two major variables that alters the blood and tissue N2 tension and the risk of gas bub,ble disease, or decompression sickness. As a response to this, recent efforts have been aimed at improving the knowledge of the resp,iratory physiology of marine mammals to better understand how pressure alters gas exchange. In addition, respiratory disease is a ma,jor problem for cetaceans both in the wild and those held under managed care, e.g. the Navy Marine Mammal Program, where the clinica,l signs are often masked until the animal is severely affected. Methods to diagnose respiratory disease either do not provide immedi,ate results (e.g. cytology, bronchoalveolar lavage), and/or are logistically difficult or invasive (e.g. radiographs, Computed Tomog,raphy). Recently, pulmonary function testing (spirometry) was developed and used to detect respiratory disease and to track treatmen,t efficacy in the dolphin. This method is non-invasive and may be a useful diagnostic tool in marine species where it is logisticall,y challenging to identify pulmonary disease and assess temporal treatment efficacy. One major difficulty in studying respiratory phy,siology in cetaceans is their extreme respiratory capacity, where the maximal respiratory flows are up to a magnitude higher as comp,ared with humans and other terrestrial mammals. Thus, ONR funded projects studying respiratory physiology have involved the developm,ent of species adapted custom-made spirometers. Thus, this equipment is difficult to move around, making it difficult to provide a r,esearch and diagnostic tool for general use. In 2015 a collaboration was initiated with a Swiss company (ndd Medizintechnik AG, http,s://www.ndd.ch/en/product.html) that develops ultrasonic spirometer for humans. Together with the Swiss engineering company g&o embe,dded systems GmbH (https://www.gosystems.ch) they have developed a modified version of their spirometer which allows measurement of, respiratory flow up to 160 l s-1, and will attempt to modify this up to 200 l s-1, allowing lung function testing of a greater rang,e of cetacean species from a small harbor porpoise (25 kg) to a medium sized killer whale (3500 kg). This proposal seeks to purchase, 3 flow meters for dolphins that will be used to provide diagnostic capability for the Navy Marine Mammal program and to be used to, support on-going and pending ONR/DoD funded projects. This ultrasonic flow-meter will be made portable and water proof and with cus,tomized software to allow rapid assessment of potential respiratory health problems.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 05, 2022
- Source ID
- N000142212223
Entities
People
- Andrew J. Read
Organizations
- Duke University
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy