Journal Club: Flow Index - A new, noninvasive method to evaluate patient inspiratory effort during PSV 

During pressure support ventilation (PSV), assessing patient inspiratory effort may enable titration of respiratory assistance to minimize over- and under-assistance and the associated complications. The Flow Index is a numeric indicator used to quantify the concavity of the inspiratory flow-time waveform. This study on 24 patients investigated whether the Flow Index was associated with the patient’s inspiratory effort and could thus be a simple, continuous, and noninvasive method of titrating and monitoring patient inspiratory effort during PSV.