Abstract: Apparatus and method to monitor patient breathing during weaning from ventilator dependency to assure adequate performance and safety, and to provide visual respiratory biofeedback breathing patterns to prompt respiratory center neurologic signals to normal performance. The device permits setting desired breathing patterns within an optimal level of ventilation, and to establish and monitor a level of lowest permissible ventilation to define minimum safe levels of ventilation, and to permit definition of patient exhaustion and therefore need to terminate the weaning trial. The device may be used in weaning trials of spontaneous breathing, or in conjunction with ventilator assistive modes of all types. Used in conjunction with a plurality of ventilators the device may signal the ventilator to assist if the patient's attempts to breathe fall below predetermined safe levels of ventilation.

Abstract: Apparatus and methods to test respiratory patients for altered dyspnea awareness. The device imposes a defined inspiratory resistive load under controlled breathing conditions and records the patient's subjective sensation of dyspnea over time by incrementally increasing the inspiratory resistive load. In a preferred embodiment, the patient breathes in a controlled manner with visual biofeedback prompting, having predetermined respiratory rate, inspiration to expiration time ratio and inspiration and expiration respiratory waveforms.