Respiratory pattern during neurally adjusted ventilatory assist in acute respiratory failure patients

Clinical review: Update on neurally adjusted ventilatory assist--report of a round-table conference

Conventional mechanical ventilators rely on pneumatic pressure and flow sensors and controllers to detect breaths. New modes of mechanical ventilation have been developed to better match the assistance delivered by the ventilator to the patient's needs. Among these modes, neurally adjusted ventilatory assist (NAVA) delivers a pressure that is directly proportional to the integral of the electrical activity of the diaphragm recorded continuously through an esophageal probe. In clinical settings, NAVA has been chiefly compared with pressure-support ventilation, one of the most popular modes used during the weaning phase, which delivers a constant pressure from breath to breath. Comparisons with proportional-assist ventilation, which has numerous similarities, are lacking. Because of the constant level of assistance, pressure-support ventilation reduces the natural variability of the breathing pattern and can be associated with asynchrony and/or overinflation. The ability of NAVA to circumvent these limitations has been addressed in clinical studies and is discussed in this report. Although the underlying concept is fascinating, several important questions regarding the clinical applications of NAVA remain unanswered. Among these questions, determining the optimal NAVA settings according to the patient's ventilatory needs and/or acceptable level of work of breathing is a key issue. In this report, based on an investigator-initiated round table, we review the most recent literature on this topic and discuss the theoretical advantages and disadvantages of NAVA compared with other modes, as well as the risks and limitations of NAVA.

Assessment of patient-ventilator breath contribution during neurally adjusted ventilatory assist

PURPOSE

During neurally adjusted ventilatory assist (NAVA), it is difficult to quantify the relative contribution of the patient versus the ventilator to the inspiratory tidal volume (Vt(insp)). To solve this problem, we developed an index, the "patient-ventilator breath contribution" (PVBC), using the inspiratory deflection of the diaphragmatic electrical activity (∆EAdi) and Vt(insp) during assisted and non-assisted breaths. This study evaluated the PVBC index in an experimental setup.

METHOD

Nine intubated and sedated rabbits were studied during repeated ramp increases of the NAVA level. One breath was non-assisted at each NAVA level. The PVBC index was evaluated during resistive loading and after acute lung injury. PVBC was calculated by relating Vt(insp)/∆EAdi of a non-assisted breath to that of the preceding assisted breath. The PVBC was compared to the relative contribution of esophageal pressure (∆Pes) to transpulmonary pressure deflections (∆P (L,dyn)).

RESULTS

The relationship between PVBC and ∆Pes/∆P (L,dyn) was slightly curvilinear with an intercept different from zero (y = -1x (2 )+ 1.64x + 0.21) and a determination coefficient (R (2)) of 0.95. Squaring the PVBC values resulted in a near perfect linear relationship (y = 1.02x + 0.05) between PVBC(2) and ∆Pes/∆P (L,dyn) with an R (2) of 0.97.

CONCLUSION

This study shows that Vt(insp) and EAdi can be used to predict the contribution of the inspiratory muscles versus that of the ventilator during NAVA. If clinically applicable, this could serve to quantify and standardize the adjustment of the level of assist, and hence reduce the risks of excessive ventilatory assist. Further studies are required to evaluate if this method is clinically applicable.