Incentive spirometer

^ That's it. Truly not that accurate but gives them a ball-park assessment and something to write down onto the charts. Can you imagine someone putting, a smidge, about half-way or one-third in your charts? Those things are all built to an engineering specification so they all ball-park in the general area. Besides air is difficult to quantify biased on Boyle's + Charle's gas laws.

Medical staff is looking for rate of change - are you getting better or worse? A baseline must be set. That unit is measuring a single breath, we're usually looking at LPM (liters per minute) - so normal breathing is around 8-12 BPM (breaths per minute) in an adult. So that's why that cylinder is measuring an average of 1/10. During baseline assessment (ie. hospital check-in); there's a spot in your records of how many BPM, establishing your normal.

Hope this helps....

 

No proportioning valve on the one I saw. There is a piston adding resistance. The device is $10.

It is more breathing exercise with feedback. You are instructed to give it your all. Often needed after a long total anesthetic procedure.

 

Blood oxygen is the real metric. The $10 breathing exercise machine is for home use.

 

I've used a recording, pulse oximeter to confirm my sleep apnea diagnosis and later, the effectiveness of my CPAP machine and mask.

Bob Wilson

 

As it happens I was in hospital for something unrelated and took lung function tests. Equipment was impressively complicated including a clear plastic 'phone booth' to sit in, that (I suppose) measured body-volume changes during huffing and puffing.

I suppose that if one really wants to know lung function it ought to be done in that way. If one wants to train for it, a more qualitative home device would be a good choice.

==
Competitive free divers do amazing things to preload O2. And then nearly kill themselves. What a thing to aim at...

 

I'm not so sure.
I know people with only 1 lung who are fairly active, even a Pope.
.....and then there's the free-diver story above.
The normal oxygen (O2) percentage in air is approximately 21% but mile-highers (both kinds) can find themselves huffing and puffing because although an elevated city's oxygen levels are similar to other areas of the continental United States... the amount of oxygen a person takes in with each breath is reduced at high altitudes due to lower air pressure.
Works the same way with lungs.
Any (qualified) submarine vet knows why they keep an altimeter in the control room (no....it's not for the new diving officers!) and that 'patrol headache' that you get when the O2 levels go below the targeted 19%.

Blood gasses tell a tale AND lung function is only one of the chapters - BUT they bear watching if they're old.....full of sludge....there's only one of them....or you live where the AQI is high.
Old lungs are like old Presidents.

They ain't as good as some of the younger ones, and they should be tested regularly for declination.....
OTHERWISE really, really REALLY bad stuff can happen....

 

I am not in best health but live at 2000 meters. Vacation at 3500 meters to a scenic place, where sea-level people were using little oxygen bottles, but we were not. Acclimation is a really big thing. I suppose similar holds true for one-lungers whose remaining wetware physically gets better. Maybe bigger; that I do not know.

 

That booth is actually the "gold standard" for pulmonary function test (PFT). Every aspect of that environment is controlled for accurate measurement purposes. Operators can vary the O2 concentrations to measure your body response. They would need a Pulse Ox on you to do that test. As O2 levels rise, your respiration (BPM) should slow and vise-a-versa.

 

'Zactly!'

NOW....
How many hospitals have those booths?
How much is the test?

JUST to be clear....
O2 sensors are a GOOD thing - presuming they can reasonable measure blood gasses!

They CAN be expected to perhaps weed out the 80-90% of people over 60 with reasonable BMIs who don't need to squeeze into a booth - PRESUMMING they can afford to do so in the first place.

 

We had two in my old facility and they were operating all the time - when they weren't broken. If they break, Pulmonary department manger was usually crawling up our backsides for an ETA.
I have no idea of the cost (recharge rate); but judging from management's reactions - It was a real revenue generator.
Those units leaked all the time, so you wouldn't be able to perform necessary tests. That in conjunction with the widening of Americans, forced the emergency PO process of two, new, wider chambers - when I was leaving. I had to sign-off on the justification and projected reduction of down-time for those newer units.
I've found what I could only describe as grease smears on the inside doors of those units on multiple occasions. Staff was claiming the unit was leaking again - all test indicated the contrary, no problem found. When I asked the operators; 'how many of you guy pushed on the door to close it on the patient? Their response was two or three of us would push on the door until we get a positive lock signal. The chamber needs to be 'air-tight' to do proper measurements. The operators not realizing this made me angry and sad for the future of our society. They had a few sharp staff members, but the majority was idiots.

 

Not after a few flights of stairs....

THAT is MY 'real metric' for 02 throughput.....

 

Stair climbing is seen as a good way to improve VO2 max which is the efficiency that your body uses O2 provided by lungs. It can qualify as high intensity interval training if you ride the elevator down and then resume climbing. There are many ways of course, but in a urban stetting there are usually multistory building with elevators*.

VO2 max can be approximated

VO2 Max Calculator | Aerobic Capacity
What Is Aerobic Capacity? How To Measure And Improve Your Cardio Fitness - Biostrap

(Or by smartwatches or fitbits I guess)

Or measured in lab with the facemask, equipment, and a physical challenge.

I do not know that pulse oximeters are used for this. They are aimed at knowing how 'oxy' one is at rest.

*in this country law requires elevators in residential buildings above 7 stories. So there are many many topping out at 7

 

"with a $10 price point" That is amazing! I could apparently buy these at wholesale in China for USD$11 to $4, for 5 to 1000 units. You have an impressive supplier.

 

Before I was enslaved by Steve Jobs I had a $200 smart phone and a $50 fitbit.
I was also an active military reservist who worked in an office with 3 floors and a basement.

No elevator.
These used to help keep me from failing my biannual physical fitness tests in my 'over 40' years.

Cheaper than Ozempic.
Probably safer too.