Improving instrumentation for hospital care of neonates in Hungary. A system to help reduce the rate of perinatal mortality

This article describes two examples of the authors' design, which is aimed at improving medical technology in the field of neonatology. One device is a central monitoring system for neonatal intensive care units. The other is device is automatic (or computer-aided) equipment for long-term oxygen therapy. The authors' experimental results demonstrate the possibility of stabilizing blood oxygen saturation within a narrow range, without the danger of hyperoxia or hypoxia. The automatic control system also helps to estimate the necessary FiO/sub 2/ (fraction of inspired oxygen) value since because of spontaneous inspiration, if the flow is higher than a certain value, the inspired oxygen depends only on FiO/sub 2/. The automatic control system not only protects the neonate from hyperoxygenation or hypoxygenation but also reduces the necessity for continual on-the-spot inspection. In conclusion, the authors can say that even without precise knowledge of the transfer function of the human element in the control loop (merely supposing that, on average, over a long period, a higher FiO/sub 2/ results in a higher saturation) the authors have been able to develop a control system that gives reliable help in the treatment of a particular symptom group which, unfortunately, tends to be quite frequent in neonatal intensive care units.