FACED with a patient in respiratory distress in the emergency room, doctors usually administer high concentrations of oxygen via a mask. But for some people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a burst of oxygen can actually shut down the body’s breathing reflex.
Spotting at-risk patients normally takes precious minutes, but now a non-invasive sensor for measuring the concentration of carbon dioxide in the blood could identify such people in seconds.
The device, created by Shin-Won Kang at Kyungpook National University in Daegu, South Korea, and his team, works by analysing infrared light. It captures CO2 using a small…
