US 4,282,883 AGranted

Spirometers

AssigneeScitec, Inc.

InventorMoshe Yerushalmy

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Abstract

A spirometer having a turbine transducer which includes a plurality of blades past which exhaled or inhaled air can be blown on sucked to cause a degree of rotation of the blades in proportion to the volume of air passing at a speed proportional to the rate of flow of the air. The turbine transducer produces a series of electrical pulses preferably by an electro-optical sensor at a rate proportional to the rate of rotation of the blade and these are fed to a microprocessor which stores and processes pulses and displays information relating to pulmonary functions calculated in the microprocessor. It is preferred that the turbine transducer is housed in a body that can be held in the hand of and raised to the mouth of a patient and is constructed in such a manner and of such materials as to make it readily dismountable for cleaning while responding quickly and accurately to changes in the rate of flow of exhaled or inhaled air.

A turbine transducer for a spirometer comprising a hollow body adapted to be held in the hand of and raised to the mouth of a patient, said body having an axially extending passage throughout its length,

means on the body at one end of said passage to receive a removable tube through which the patient can exhale air into said passage,
a pair of conical diffuser members each having a cone angle of between 35.degree. and 40.degree.,
means supporting said diffuser members in said passage coaxially, base to base, and spaced apart,
a turbine rotor assembly,
means mounting said turbine rotor assembly in the space between said conical diffuser members for rotation about the axis of said passage,
said turbine rotor assembly including a plurality of radially extending blades, said blades having portions exposed to the movement of air through the said passage extending at an angle of between 20.degree. and 40.degree. to the axis of rotation of the turbine assembly, selected ones of said blades having a portion directed toward the wall of said passage and lying adjacent thereto,
means defining apertures in said diffuser members supporting means permitting passage of air past said conical diffuser members to said blades to cause rotation of the turbine rotor assembly at a rate directly related to the rate of flow of air in said passage,
photo-optical sensor means,
an aperture in the side of said body opposite said blades,
means supporting said photo-optical sensor means in said aperture in said body allowing the photo-optical sensor means to direct radition onto each said blade portion directed towards the wall of said passage and to receive radiation reflected from each said blade portion during its passage past said photo-optical sensor means and thereby produce an electrical pulse,
said body being made in at least two separate parts, each part including one of said conical diffuser members and a part of said means for mounting said turbine rotor assembly,
whereby the transducer may be dismantled and the turbine assembly removed for cleaning.

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Abstract

Claims5