BROOKLYN, New York, April 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As hospitals in New York City and beyond are facing ashortage of mechanical ventilators for COVID-19 patients in critical care, many are turning to readilyavailable CPAP and BiPAP machines as a stopgap measure.
A rapid-response team at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering, part of acomprehensive NYU Tandon COVID initiative, has come up with a solution based on a simple, uniquemodification of these devices that can be done quickly using readily available components.
Designed by a team led by Vikram Kapila, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NYU Tandon, with collaborators at the NYU Tandon Future Labs, NYU COVID-19 Task Force, MakerSpace, and the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, the system provides non-invasive breathing support in theearly stages before intubation during critical care, and later stages, when patients are eased offventilators. The team included NYU Tandon alumni and graduate and undergraduate students and itreceived invaluable input from several industry experts with research experience in mechanicalventilator modeling and control.
Called NYU Tandon AirMOD, the modifications not only turn CPAP and BiPAP machines into oxygen-enrichment tools, they trap the virus in a patient’s breath with viral filters. Unlike other conversions, the NYU Tandon modifications assemble in minutes and exclusively use FDA-approved off-the-shelfcomponents already in stock in hospitals.
The AirMOD closed-loop systems employ non-vented face masks instead of traditional vented masks,drastically limiting direct exhalation to the environment, and such off-the-shelf components as viralfilters, oxygen enrichment adaptors, tee-connectors, and positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) valves.
The modifications are designed either for BiPAP machines, which allow for easier exhalation, or CPAPmachines, which deliver constant positive air pressure whether a patient is inhaling or exhaling.
“With BiPAP machines, which reduce the flow of air into the patient while they are exhaling, only onePEEP valve is required. With CPAP machines, two such valves can be used to lessen the work needed toexhale,” said Kapila.
He explained that by supplying the patient with oxygen through the enrichment adapter, and byproperly tuning the PEEP valves, the patient receives oxygen and air while being allowed to exhale.
“The viral filter is a critical component in this circuit that ensures the air leaving the circuit into theenvironment is safe for health care workers tending to a patient,” he said.
The team is also testing prototypes for a second system called NYU Tandon AirVENT, a portable, personal negative pressure hood that can be used in waiting rooms, for physicians intubating patients,in ICUs, during transfer from containment areas to diagnostic imaging rooms, or as double-backup forthe AirMOD.
“The speed and efficiency at which Vikram’s team took an initial concept and turned it into an effectiveand scalable solution is almost unprecedented,” said Steven Kuyan, director of entrepreneurship at NYU Tandon and managing director of the NYU Tandon Future Labs. “Using off-the-shelf or readilyavailable components, one focus for the NYU COVID-19 Task Force, will make AirMOD and AirVENT aneasy to implement solution on the front lines here in the United States and around the world.”
Jorge Serrador, associate professor of pharmacology, physiology, and neuroscience at Rutgers NewJersey Medical School is testing both the AirMOD and AirVENT systems.
“A normal CPAP machine would spread the virus widely because not only is the mask vented, butpressurized air from the system would amplify the dispersion of virus,” said Serrador. “The NYUTandon team cut off that avenue of exhaust and set up a system that filters out the viral load. That’sthe advantage.”
The AirMOD modifications were also reviewed by pulmonologists and physicians at NYU Langone andother centers. The designs can be downloaded here: http://engineering.nyu.edu/mechatronics/covid-19/cpap-bipap-fluid-circuit-modification-assembly-manual.php
About the New York University Tandon School of Engineering
The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, the founding date for both the New YorkUniversity School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and PolytechnicInstitute (widely known as Brooklyn Poly). A January 2014 merger created a comprehensive school ofeducation and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a tradition of invention and entrepreneurship and dedicated to furthering technology in service to society. In addition to its mainlocation in Brooklyn, NYU Tandon collaborates with other schools within NYU, one of the country’sforemost private research universities, and is closely connected to engineering programs at NYU AbuDhabi and NYU Shanghai. It operates Future Labs focused on start-up businesses in downtownManhattan and Brooklyn and an award-winning online graduate program. For more information, visit http://engineering.nyu.edu.
Attachments