Development and testing of Spirometer with pulmonary rehabilitation for patients of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Abstract

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is one of the most aggressive neurological diseases affecting the lower and upper motor neurons, it diseases and eventually kills the motor neurons, leaving the patient unable to walk, move, talk, and eventually breathe. For this reason, the main cause of death in ALS is respiratory failure. However ALS patients usually only see specialized health assistants every 2 to 3 months in ALS clinics. Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT) is a form of resistance workout for the lungs, and it has been found to increase survival in ALS individuals for 12 months. Spirometers, devices that measure lung capacity, could help patients measure their lung state, and adjust therapies accordingly at home. For this reason, an automatic spirometer prototype that can record the state of the lungs, adjust itself, and perform IMT rehabilitation in ALS patients is proposed. Results show that the proposed spirometer prototype could measure FVC and PEF with an average accuracy of 96.98% and 92.6% respectively, and could improve FVC by 13.7%, and FEV1 by 13.6% with inspiratory incentive training.