Method and system for quantifying timing discrepancies between inspiratory effort and ventilatory assist

A ventilatory support system, comprising:

• one or more electrodes;
• a mechanical ventilator configured to provide ventilatory assist to a patient;
• a first interface for receiving, from the one or more electrodes, a neural inspiration signal representing an inspiratory effort of the patient;
• a second interface for receiving, from the mechanical ventilator, a measurement signal representing a start time and an end time of the ventilatory assist;
• a memory for storing a first threshold and a second threshold;
• and
• a processor operatively coupled to the first and second interfaces and to the memory, the processor being configured to:
• determine, based on the neural inspiration signal, a trigger error by comparing a start time of a current inspiratory effort of the patient with the start time of the ventilatory assist, wherein the processor is configured to determine the trigger error by ignoring any inspiratory effort in which, between the start time and the end time of the inspiratory effort, a variation of the neural inspiration signal is less than a minimum signal variation threshold, wherein the trigger error is determined based on analysis of the neural inspiration signal and of the measurement signal between an end of a previous inspiratory effort of the patient and an end of the current inspiratory effort of the patient, wherein the start time of the ventilatory assist preceding the start time of the current inspiratory effort of the patient denotes an early trigger error and wherein the start time of the ventilatory assist following the start time of the current inspiratory effort of the patient denotes a late trigger error,
• determine, based on the neural inspiration signal, a cycling-off error by comparing an end time of the current inspiratory effort of the patient with the end time of the ventilatory assist, wherein the processor is configured to determine the cycling-off error by ignoring any inspiratory effort in which, between the start time and end time of the ventilatory assist, a variation of a pressure delivered by the ventilatory assist is less than a minimum pressure variation threshold, wherein the cycling-off error is determined based on analysis of the neural inspiration signal and of the measurement signal between a start of the current inspiratory effort of the patient and a start of a next inspiratory effort of the patient, wherein the end time of the ventilatory assist preceding the end time of the current inspiratory effort of the patient denotes an early cycling-off error and wherein the end time of the ventilatory assist following the end time of the current inspiratory effort of the patient denotes a late cycling-off error, and
• adjust the ventilatory assist provided to the patient by the mechanical ventilator so that the trigger error is lower than the first threshold and the cycling-off error is lower than the second threshold.