Measurements of endotracheal tube cuff contact pressure using fibre Bragg gratings

An optical fibre Bragg grating (FBG) was used to measure local strain (due to contact pressure) at the interface of a cuffed endotracheal tube (ETT) tested in a tracheal model. The tracheal model consisted of a corrugated tube. Two FBG sensors written in a single optical fibre were attached to the outside wall of the cuff of the ETT. Intracuff endotracheal pressure was measured using a digital manometer, while the contact pressure between the model trachea and the ETT was measured using Flexiforce sensors. Changes in the Bragg wavelengths in response to the inflation of the cuff of the ETT, and concomitant pressure increase, were observed to be dependent on the location of the FBGs at the corrugations, i.e., the annular peaks and troughs of the corrugated tube. The performance of both contact pressure sensors FBG and Flexiforce suggests that FBG technology is better suited to this application as it allows the measurement of contact pressures on non-uniform surfaces such as in the tracheal model.