Performance Evaluation of a Low-Cost Non-Invasive Ventilator during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Bench Study

Background: During the COVID-19 breakout, a global call for low-cost portable ventilators was made following the strong demand for ventilatory support techniques. Among a few development projects, COVIDair non-invasive ventilator was developed and produced in a record time during the critical period of spring 2020. Objectives: To evaluate COVIDair performance (i.e., inspiratory trigger delay time, TDT, pressurization time and inspiratory to expiratory time ratio, I:E) on a test bench simulating physiological characteristics of breathing. Method: Performance tests were conducted on a breathing simulator (ASL 5000, IngMar Medical (TM)) in two different lung mechanics (i.e., normal and severe restrictive). Results: Under normal pulmonary mechanics, the inspiratory TDT is on average between 89.0 (+/- 2.1) and 135.0 (+/- 9.7) ms. In a situation of severe restrictive pulmonary mechanics, the inspiratory TDT is on average between 80 (+/- 3.1) and 99.2 (+/- 5.5) ms. Pressurization time to pre-set inspiratory pressure was on average from 234.6 (+/- 5.5) to 318.6 (+/- 1.9) ms. The absolute difference between the actual I:E cycling measure and the pre-set I:E cycling value ranged from 0.1 to 10.7% on average. Conclusion: In normal and severe restrictive pulmonary mechanics scenarios, the performance of COVIDair meets the expected standards for non-invasive ventilators.