How are Gas Flow Systems Used to Calibrate Medical Devices?

Gas flow systems are employed around the world to serve a broad range of purposes. As well as being used to calibrate gas chromatographs (GC) in both laboratory and analytical facilities, they are also deployed in the mixing, blending, and delivery of appropriate medical gas mixtures.

Image Credit: Environics

Cutting-edge clinical research into how distinct gases influence cellular behavior has also benefited from easy access to ultra-high precision gas flow systems certified for medical use. This availability has assisted analytical clinicians and researchers across the fields of medicine, from oncology to optometry.

This article will explore in more detail how gas flow systems can be used with medical devices.

Gas Flow Systems for Medical Instrument Calibration

Gas chromatography is a ubiquitous research tool that is used to separate and identify components in a mixture based on their molecular weight. Compounds that are structurally similar can be separated into incredibly small quantities, providing reliable analysis of the constituent parts of biological samples including low-concentration gas species and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

The principal use of GC analysis in medical and pharmaceutical applications was the observation and study of respiratory gases and the analysis of anesthetic products.

Modern clinicians can now determine the volatile organic concentrations of anesthetic in microliter (ul) volume blood samples, enabling greater reliability and insight into the efficacy of anesthetic in reduced analysis timeframes and with less consumption of valuable biological sample materials. This technique is increasingly employed with blood samples in order to identify and quantify the physiological gas content, including respiratory and non-respiratory gases.

Measuring blood gas is a standard technique in diagnosis that can identify imbalances in blood-gas concentration. These imbalances may be symptomatic of a range of conditions including asthma, pulmonary failure, diabetes, chemical poisoning, drug abuse, and more.

Gas flow systems are a necessary part of GC calibration in order to guarantee the highest level of accuracy in the analysis of microvolume biological samples. Environics gas flow systems work with required flow rates to generate and introduce tailor-made gas streams with concentrations from percent to parts per billion (ppb) levels. This allows reliable calibration of GCs to ensure the utmost level of precision in clinical studies.

Environics supplies custom mixtures of carbon dioxide (CO₂), oxygen (O₂), and helium (He) in a balance of dinitrogen (D₂) for GC calibration or for primary application in a variety of medical devices. These systems can be calibrated to mix any combination of gases, from simulating human breath to calibrate lung diffusion instruments, or conducting any human breath related research. Through extensive use, their gas flow systems have demonstrated superior potential in the calibration, development and optimization of advanced medical tools, aiding the delivery of exceptional medical care that supports research that has the possibility to save lives in the future.

Gas Flow Systems from Environics

Environics is one of the leading suppliers in the world of gas flow systems for instrument and sensor calibration, as well as for intermediate application in the medical sector. In tandem with their gas flow systems for medical devices, they can also work with the customer in the generation of direct gases for biological uses including aerobic, anaerobic, and medical drug gases.

This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Environics, Inc.

For more information on this source, please visit Environics, Inc.