Patent ID: 7235054

Claim:
A measuring head for the analysis of gasses present in a patient's breath, the measuring head adapted for placement in close proximity to the patient's mouth, comprising: a central aperture ( 7 ) connecting to a central portion ( 4 ) of a breath sampling adapter ( 2 ), the breath sampling adapter adapted for placement in close proximity to the patient's mouth to obtain a sampled breath from the patient's mouth; two mutually opposing surfaces ( 8 ) facing inwardly towards the aperture; a light transmitter ( 9 ) aligned with a light receiver ( 10 ) for transmitting and receiving infrared light respectively mounting on respective ones of the two opposing surfaces ( 8 ) such that light emitted by the light transmitter passes through the central portion of the adapter and the sampled breath to reach the light receiver; a connection for a fuel cell measuring an oxygen gas content of the sampled breath, the connection located proximate the central aperture and in communication with the sampled breath; a light transmitter board ( 13 ) connected to the light transmitter, the transmitter board including a microprocessor and an A/D-converter; a detector board ( 14 ), connected to the light receiver, comprising a motor drive with a rotatable output shaft; a rotatable filter wheel ( 16 ), comprising optical band-pass filters, carried on the shaft and situated so as to lie in an optical path between the light transmitter and the light receiver so that the infrared light will pass optical band-pass filters of the filter wheel prior to arriving at the light receiver to provide a detector board output signal based on the light passing through the optical band-pass filters; and a signal processing unit ( 20 ) operatively connected to the light transmitter board and the detector board output signal, the signal processing unit comprising a microprocessor, an analogue to digital converter processing the detector board output signal, and a calibration data memory ( 31 ), the signal processing unit outputting a digital signal ( 40 ) containing processed gas data of the multiple gasses present in the sampled breath for direct presentation on a presentation unit of a values system.