A Look at Heart/Lung Interaction

The heart is essentially linked in series with the pulmonary system. They are exposed to similar intrathoracic pressure changes, compete for intrathoracic space, and have a number of integrated neural and humoral processes. It is not surprising, therefore, that one system has a significant impact on the other.

Breathing Efficiency Measures Heart/Lung Coupling
The Shape-HF Cardiopulmonary Testing System uses ventilation parameters (i.e., analysis of breathing efficiency) to examine, in detail, how cellular respiration affects heart/lung interaction. Because the circulation couples cellular respiration with ventilation at the lung, diseases affecting cellular metabolism in the heart, peripheral or pulmonary circulation, or the lungs can affect the efficiency of oxygen utilization and carbon dioxide production, which can be measured in expired air. These measurements can then be compared with known clinical data to predict disease progression or clinical outcome, or to monitor a patient's progress during therapy. From the comparison between acquired and known clinical data, the Shape-HF system calculates one, easy to understand number to define the patient's prognosis or monitor clinical response to therapy.

Dynamic Autocalibration
The Shape-HF system does not require formal, manual calibration. Instead, the data analyzers are dynamically auto calibrated, meaning they continually assess calibration offsets to assure high quality, consistent, and reproducible results. The Shape-HF system is self contained and miniaturized, incorporates algorithms developed from resting, light- and maximal, or peak, exercise data. The system is low cost, and can be performed without risk by one trained technician.