INTRODUCTION Pressure-support ventilation, is widely used in critically ill patients; however, the relative contribution of patient's effort during assisted breathing is difficult to measure in clinical conditions. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the performance of ultrasonographic indices of diaphragm contractile activity (respiratory excursion and thickening) in comparison to traditi...

Recovery of diaphragm activity after bilateral diaphragmatic paralysis was monitored in a term infant using a mechanical sector scanner fitted with a 5 MHz transducer. The ratio of diaphragmatic excursion during spontaneous breathing and ventilator assistance was used an objective measure for comparison of diaphragmatic activity during recovery. Ultrasound assessment of diaphragm contraction ma...

Preserving spontaneous breathing during mechanical ventilation prevents muscle atrophy of the diaphragm, but may lead to ventilator induced lung injury (VILI). We present a case in which monitoring of trans-pulmonary pressure and ventilation distribution using Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) provided essential information for preventing VILI.

Previous studies have shown in awake dogs that activity in the crural diaphragm, but not in the costal diaphragm, usually persists after the end of inspiratory airflow. It has been suggested that this difference in postinspiratory activity results from greater muscle spindle content in the crural diaphragm. To evaluate the relationship between muscle spindles and postinspiratory activity, we ha...

In most cases, structural engineers assume a concrete floor to be a rigid diaphragm. Although this simplification is in most cases acceptable, it should be noted that such an assumption may be distrusted due to certain problems. Concrete structures with staggered shear walls are among those whose analysis should be conducted with special concern for the behavior of their floor diaphragms. Howev...

We report on a 59-year-old female patient with an infected vascular graft investigated with 18F FDG-PET/CT. The first of two studies showed FDG activity in the left deltoid and ipsilateral axillary lymph nodes explained by influenza vaccination the day prior. The second 18F FDG-PET/CT showed multiple FDG-avid lymph nodes on both sides of the diaphragm without tracer accumulation at the vaccinat...

This paper presents the analysis, design, fabrication, and testing of a condenser microphone utilizing a thin low-stress polycrystalline silicon diaphragm suspended above a p+ perforated back plate. The microphone is fabricated using a combination of surface and bulk micromachining techniques in a single wafer process without the need of wafer bonding. The device shows sensitivities of -34 dB (...