BACKGROUND

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (“COPD”), asthma, hypoventilation, and apnea patients have difficulty breathing. In these patients, the airways in the lungs are damaged and lead to shortness of breath, impacting everyday activities. The breathing in apnea patients may be suspended and this can be a result of many factors such as: drugs, trauma, sleep, age, and neurological disease.

Capnography is a monitoring device that measures the concentration of carbon dioxide in exhaled air and displays a numerical readout and waveform tracing. Capnography can detect and/or monitor apnea, hypoventilation, and COPD. Capnography may be used in the operation room and/or the emergency room. Capnography is a direct measure of the effectiveness of the lung in a patient. Current commercial tools for capnography utilize nondispersive infrared (“NDIR”) technology.

