Air flow during ventilator-supported speech production. The black circles represent occlusions, and the gray circle represents higher-than-usual impedance. During inspiration, air flows both toward the lungs and through the larynx. During usual expiration, almost all air flows toward the ventilator. This is because the impedance of the ventilator pathway is much lower than that of the laryngeal pathway during speech production. During expiration with PEEP, the impedance of the ventilator pathway is higher than usual so that more air flows through the larynx. During expiration with a one-way valve, all air flows through the larynx. Adapted from Hoit et al.
Dually for each subject by briefly testing a range of levels buy Viagra in Canada online. The level that was most comfortable for the subject was used for the study. It was not possible to test all subjects on all interventions due to time limitations imposed by nursing staff schedules, subject fatigue, subject preferences (eg, rejection of lengthened Ti), and the fact that several subjects also participated in additional interventions not reported here.
With each condition, we recorded several breaths with nose and mouth closed (except in the four subjects whose usual condition included use of a one-way valve). The subject read a paragraph aloud, and then was asked “How does your speech sound?” and “How does your breathing feel?” The subject responded by using a rating scale (— 2 = much worse than usual; — 1 = slightly worse than usual; 0 = usual; + 1 = slightly better than usual; + 2 = much better than usual).
The speech signal was sensed by a head-mounted microphone. Pt was sampled using a polyethylene catheter inserted through the sealed port of a swivel adapter and advanced through the tracheostomy tube to a point just within its proximal end. The catheter was connected to a transducer and amplifier. Tidal Pco2 was sampled from the common ventilator line and measured with a clinical monitor. Noninvasive measure of arterial oxygen saturation (Spo2), heart rate, and noninvasive BP were monitored continually. A digital audiotape recorder was used to record the speech signal, Pt, end-tidal Pco2, and ventilator flow.
Ten objective measures were computed. Auditory perceptual analysis was conducted by five listeners, all of whom were certified speech-language pathologists. Each listener was presented pairs of speech samples, one with the subject’s usual ventilator settings and one with an intervention.