Patent ID: 7500481

Claim:
An apparatus to assist a patient's respiration by delivering air to a patient through a mask, comprising: a blower to provide the patient with air under a treatment pressure; a control unit to adjust the pressure delivered by said blower at the level of said mask; a ramp module connected to the control unit in order to provide the control unit with a value of pressure P M to settle at said mask so that, when said apparatus starts functioning, the pressure progressively rises until the pressure of treatment P T , the rise of pressure until the pressure of treatment P T corresponding to a ramp period; a comparator connected to the ramp module; and at least one means for detecting the patient's breathing parameters during said ramp period and sending them to said comparator such that the comparator is able during this said ramp period to determine whether an event (E 1 , E 2 or E 3 ) occurs in patient's breathing based on said breathing parameters and to send the corresponding data to the ramp module which provides the control unit with a value of pressure P M that will speed up with respect of time during this said ramp period, in order to accelerate the rise of pressure at patient's mask within the same said ramp period.