Design and performance of a flow sensor CoroQuant used with emergency lung ventilator CoroVent during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

At the time of COVID-19 pandemic onset in spring 2020 a project CoroVent was initiated with the aim to design and produce emergency lung ventilators and distribute them to hospitals. No flow and tidal volume sensors were available for the project. The lack of tidal volume sensors was a consequence of the rapidly increased demand for mechanical lung ventilators and their consumables. The aim of the study was to develop a special flow sensor CoroQuant for the CoroVent ventilators. The sensor based on pneumotachographic principle, manufactured by the plastic injection moulding of polypropylene, meets the requirements for precision of tidal volume measurement defined by international standard ISO 80601-2-12 for mechanical lung ventilators. CoroVent ventilators with CoroQuant sensors were distributed to 27 hospitals in the Czech Republic for free upon the requests from the medical facilities and started to be clinically used, thus preventing lack of lung ventilators in hospitals in the Czech Republic.