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Chapter 8 Monitoring Respiration (RESP)
8.1 Introduction
Respiration is monitored by measuring the impedance across the thorax via electrodes places on chest. When the patient
is breathing or ventilated, the volume of air changes in the lungs, resulting in impedance changes between the electrodes.
The device applies safe high-frequency current through ECG electrodes into body and measures the change of voltage
between the electrodes to reflect the thoracic impedance while ECG monitoring is not affected. Respiration rate (RR) is
calculated from these impedance changes, and the respiration waveform is displayed on the monitor screen.
8.2 Safety Information
When monitoring the patient’s respiration, it is recommended to use the so-called “non-OR” ECG cable which has
no built-in resistors to prevent the energy loss of defibrillator discharge. Otherwise the performance of respiration
monitoring is degraded.
The respiration measurement does not recognize the cause of apneas. It only indicates an alarm if no breath
is detected when a preset time has elapsed since the last detected breath. Therefore, it cannot be used for
diagnostic purpose.
If operating under conditions according to the EMC Standard EN 60601-1-2 (Radiated Immunity 3V/m), field
strengths above 1V/m may cause erroneous measurements at various frequencies. Therefore it is recommended
to avoid the use of electrically radiating equipment in close proximity to the respiration measurement unit.
8.3 Understanding the RESP Display
RESP waveform:
Respiration Panel:
“RR”
: the label of Respiration. “
rpm
” is the unit of the Respiration Rate (respiration per minute). The big font “16”
is the value of Respiration rate.
“
”: Breath symbol. The blinking frequency is the same as the Respiration Rate.
8.4 Changing RESP Settings
See Section 5.7 for details.
Label and unit
of respiration
Segno di Sincronizzazione
della Respirazione
Respiration rate
