Design and development of an automated metered dose inhaler (MDI) for asthmatic patient

To date, infant with illness associated with the pulmonary airway is treated by a doctor using a spacer device with metered dose inhaler (MDI) to allow the infant to breathe in the medication known as salbutamol. Current asthma spacer does not provide systematic way of monitoring and displaying the percentage value of the propellant. Furthermore, user non-compliance is found to contribute towards longer recovery rate. Therefore, this product is designed and developed capable of detecting the propellant level inhaled by the infant by using a MQ-6 gas sensor and monitoring its percentage value. The display of available puffs of MDI canister and the battery indicator for the system are also included in the device. The automated actuation MDI was required a push button to press the MDI canister where this project utilised Arduino Nano as the microcontroller to control the system operation and all the reading values will be displayed on the OLED. RGB LED is also used to visualise the propellant level. The obtained results of the detection of propellant in voltage from the MQ-6 gas sensors were analysed in MATLAB to make comparison through the obtained results. Without propellant, voltage recorded is 0.640±0.024V whereas high concentration of propellant displayed voltage of 1.126±0.020V. The mean standard error rate of propellant detection is 5.584%. The first design of the actuation device and interface monitoring display of automated MDI were recorded the highest percentage which is 75% and 80%. The concentration of propellant depends on the ambient temperature due to the MQ-6 gas sensor required minimum working temperature between 20oC to 22oC. The mean weight of the MDI canister for each puff is 6.257mg and the standard deviation is 3.629mg. Due to experiment conducted, the speed and pressure of pressing MDI canister causes variability in the released of salbutamol and propellant. Observation proved that ambient temperature and propellant released amount also influenced the final reading from the automated actuation MDI

Design and Development of a Non-volatile Counter for Metered Dose Inhaler (MDI)

In 2014, Global Asthma Report 2014 stated there were 334 million of people in the worldwide suffering of asthma and the population was increased 99 million compared in 2011. Asthma is the leading chronic childhood disease with albatross on affected children and their families. It occurs when the pulmonary airway is blocked or the airways become narrowed and result in difficult breathing. When asthma under attack, asthma patients normally use metered dose inhaler (MDI) to inhale the salbutamol to restore normal breathing. Therefore, MDI currently available in market unable to monitor the remaining amount of puffs available in the MDI canister and may lead problems for the user due to inability to monitor the amount of salbutamol in the MDI canister. Besides this, some manufacturers developed MDI with counter but it had the limitation such as unable to store memory of the last counting value if power failure occurs, uses non-rechargeable battery and are disposable. Hence, this paper is to present the development of a device consist of a non-volatile counter. It is designed using EEPROM to save the memory of the last counting value and to prevent data loss due to power failure. The MDI was installed with the limit switch for counter and the MDI press is attached to MDI canister so that when the user presses both simultaneously then it provides enough pressure to the limit switch to update the counter. The MDI cover is developed to protect the internal connection and to prevent the user from accidently pressing the limit switch. 7.4V Li-ion rechargeable battery was employed to supply power source for system operation. Arduino UNO (ATmega328P) act as microcontroller to control the system operation of this device. The device is capable of displaying the number of used salbutamol puff on the liquid crystal display (LCD). Furthermore, RGB LED is integrated into the device as visualization to indicate the level of salbutamol in the MDI canister. It consists of four levels indication which is high, medium, low and empty canister of used puff. The high level of used puffs is between 0 to 120 puffs with green colour indicator, medium level is between 121 to 160 puffs with yellow/orange colour indicator, low level is between 161 to 199 puffs with red colour indicator and empty canister without any colour of indicator when the used puffs reached to 200. This device could remind the user to prepare a new MDI canister since it had indicated of low level of salbutamol in the MDI canister. Besides this, it also could reduce the deaths from asthma due to the user would prepare a new MDI canister before attacked by asthma

Design and Development of a Non-volatile Counter for Metered Dose Inhaler (MDI)

In 2014, Global Asthma Report 2014 stated there were 334 million of people in the worldwide suffering of asthma and the population was increased 99 million compared in 2011. Asthma is the leading chronic childhood disease with albatross on affected children and their families. It occurs when the pulmonary airway is blocked or the airways become narrowed and result in difficult breathing. When asthma under attack, asthma patients normally use metered dose inhaler (MDI) to inhale the salbutamol to restore normal breathing. Therefore, MDI currently available in market unable to monitor the remaining amount of puffs available in the MDI canister and may lead problems for the user due to inability to monitor the amount of salbutamol in the MDI canister. Besides this, some manufacturers developed MDI with counter but it had the limitation such as unable to store memory of the last counting value if power failure occurs, uses non-rechargeable battery and are disposable. Hence, this paper is to present the development of a device consist of a non-volatile counter. It is designed using EEPROM to save the memory of the last counting value and to prevent data loss due to power failure. The MDI was installed with the limit switch for counter and the MDI press is attached to MDI canister so that when the user presses both simultaneously then it provides enough pressure to the limit switch to update the counter. The MDI cover is developed to protect the internal connection and to prevent the user from accidently pressing the limit switch. 7.4V Li-ion rechargeable battery was employed to supply power source for system operation. Arduino UNO (ATmega328P) act as microcontroller to control the system operation of this device. The device is capable of displaying the number of used salbutamol puff on the liquid crystal display (LCD). Furthermore, RGB LED is integrated into the device as visualization to indicate the level of salbutamol in the MDI canister. It consists of four levels indication which is high, medium, low and empty canister of used puff. The high level of used puffs is between 0 to 120 puffs with green colour indicator, medium level is between 121 to 160 puffs with yellow/orange colour indicator, low level is between 161 to 199 puffs with red colour indicator and empty canister without any colour of indicator when the used puffs reached to 200. This device could remind the user to prepare a new MDI canister since it had indicated of low level of salbutamol in the MDI canister. Besides this, it also could reduce the deaths from asthma due to the user would prepare a new MDI canister before attacked by asthma