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University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, October 25, 1989
KU professor, student file for a patent
By Beth Behrens Kansan staff writer
For some people, a map not be as restful as it is for others.
This restless sleep is caused by sleep apnea, and KU's chairman of mechanical engineering thinks he found a treatment for the condition.
Don Gyorog, professor of engineering, and Jeff Livington, graduate student in mechanical engineering, culminated three years of research and testing this year when they filed for a patent on the Natural Airway Pressurization Ventilation System. The system is a ventilator that could help people suffering from sleep apnea breathe easier.
Gyorog said that the sleep apnea breathing disorder was first identified in the 1900s. Apnea is a period of time when breaths breathing for 10 or more seconds.
The two types of sleep apnea are central and obstructive, he said.
Central sleep apnea, a disorder affecting very few people, is a condition in which respiratory muscles fail to receive messages from the brain. The patient's skin should be treated only by using various drugs or a pacemaker.
Obstructive sleep apnea, a more widespread disorder, causes a person to stop breathing because the upper part of the airway is closed. This condition happens predominately in obese males older than 60. This effect is worsened when the person has been drinking alcohol, he said.
Invention eases effects of sleep disorder
The most common effect of sleep apnea is daytime drowsiness because the person wakes himself at night when he chokes.
"For a long time they didn't have any methods of treatment." Gyorog said. "They tried surgery, but its not always successful. It's also kind of painful. The preferred method of treatment is Continuous Positive Airway Pressurization."
The conventional CPAP is a respirator that continuously blow air through a mask into the person's face, making it easier to breathe. The only problem with this kind of continuous ventilation, Gyorog said, is that it can only be set at one continuous airflow speed.
"You can breathe in so easily with one of those ventilators," he said "it's like sticking your head outside a car, I figure at about 50 to 60 miles an hour . . . You can't help but breathe in. But now when it comes time to breathe out, you consciously have to breathe out. After a while you can get used to them, and once people are on them, they feel so much better."
Gyorog said his system was more closely adapted to normal breathing patterns because it only supplied a
high pressure of air during inhalation.
Livingston said he found out about the need for a different kind of respiration device through Gyorog and created the respirator for his thesis project during the 1987-88 school year.
"I wanted not only to conceptualize the project, but build a prototype of it." Livingston said.
Livingston said his wife Paula, who received a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from KU in electrical him with some of the electronics.
Livingston works in Pooria, IL., for the engineering department of Caterpillar, a company that designs and manufactures farming and earth-moving equipment.
Although some respirators with valves to stop continuous airflow have been developed, Gyorog said these respirators, because they are triggered with pressure, could allow the airway to collapse.
The difference between the valve system and the flow system that Livingston and Gyorog developed is that a flow system ventilator anticipates inhalation and exhalation as well as the patient's normal breathing cycle with the use of a computer program.
Gyorog said the program was used
as a monitoring device, recording the number of breaths per minute, the number of apnea events, the total volume flow per breath, as well as other data. He said this information was not available with respirators on the market today.
The next step is to find corporate financing and to begin testing for Livingston's prototype. Gyorog sent proposals to several companies to ask for financial help.
He said Puritan Bennett Corp., and Overland Park medical supply company that manufactures ventilator systems, had expressed interest in the invention, but no offers had been negotiated. Gyorog said he hoped to get financing negotiations completed during the spring semester so that testing could begin during Summer or Fall 1990.
With financing, the ventilator could be out on the market in three to four years. Gyorog said. Until he can set up a contract with an interested company, Gyorog plans to build more prototypes and to start clinical tests at the University of Kansas Medical Center in the sleep laboratory.
Gyorog and Livingston said the uses for this machine are not limited to treating sleep apnea. Other uses could include treatment programs for snoring and emphysema. Gyorog said he hoped the system could someday be modified to treat infants susceptible to crib death.
Theater officials hope to end usher shortage
By Jennifer Reynolds Kansan staff writer
As the piano warms up, a stage hand pushes a broom across the floor and dancers practice one last time. A group of eight people walk through the balcony of the Crafton-Preyer Theatre.
"Odd numbers left and even numbers right," says Robert Beckford, house manager for the theater. He is explaining to the usher corps the layout of the theatre and how to read the tickets.
The usher corps are the people who take tickets, guide patrons to their seats and maintain control in a dark and sometimes hectic theater.
"We have a huge shortage of ushers right now," said Karen Val-
inske, assistant manager of the Murphy Hall box office. "It really creates a less professional and less hospitable atmosphere when we're short for a performance."
The volunteer corps work all University Theatre productions, concert series, and other performances throughout the year.
For a show in Crafton-Freyer Theatre the corps can work with as little as six people, but then there is no one to assist those who need extra help getting to their seat, Valinska said. Performances in Hoch Auditorium are a different story.
"In Hoch you'll have upwards to 2,000 people in the place," she said.
"When you end up with 10 to 16 people it is a difficult task. Right before the Leontyne Prize concert we were
short 50 per cent."
Beckford said the shortage started several years ago.
"On days of performances I've had to pull in friends of mine or anybody I knew," he said.
Vallinske said the shortage of ushers was because of lack of knowledge about the program and lack of organization.
"We have to get the people who are interested and then figure out how to organize them together," she said. "Everything has to be arranged and approved by the department, but it has to be innovative enough to be free."
The corps does not demand attendance to every performance on every weekend, Valinkea said. They want to establish a strong corps so no one
feels obligated or tied down to work every show.
In the effort to increase the corps, Vailinske hopes to increase University as well as community participation.
Mike Ruffalo, Overland Park junior, said volunteering for the corps changed his view of the stage.
It gave me a different perspective of the theater, he said. "Be an individual student up on duty of school. You get to dress up and do something different."
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