517: Cardiopulmonary Stress Test

During the COVID pandemic, the Mayo Clinic of Florida closed its cardiopulmonary testing facility, where technicians perform CPETs (Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test) on patients. During a CPET, patients ride a bike or run on a treadmill to maximal exercise and are completely exhausted. This test demonstrates how well the heart and lungs work together and separately in the patient. The lungs release more particles and likely any potential virus particles as their breathing becomes faster and deeper with more strenuous exercise. Any potential viral emission put others in the room at danger of becoming sick. 

An important part of the CPET is the patient face mask, which contains sensors that measure gases, breaths and other physiologic functions. These sensors transmit data to a computer that create graphs which is interpreted by the physician to determine the patient’s heart and lung health. We created a new mask attachment that allows the patient to breathe normally through the mask while particles are filtered out of their breath. Normally, the patient must breathe in and out of the same hole, but our attachment has separate ports for inhalation and exhalation, as well as a one-way check valve. This check valve closes the inhalation hole and allows the patient to breathe out only through the exhalation hole, which contains the filter material. Using two ports in the design makes patient breathing easier and reduces stress on the filter material. This design also minimally affects the patient test data, which allows the physician to make the correct diagnosis. Adding filter material to the mask attachment prevents viral particles from entering the air, making CPETs safe to have with contagious patients.