Non-Invasive Tech to Boost Diagnosis and Management of Respiratory Diseases

Alex D'Souza, Medical Tech Outlook | Friday, September 25, 2020

The latest technology for diagnosing and managing respiratory diseases is an exciting step in advancing the understanding of lung diseases and treatments that affect millions of people globally.

FREMONT, CA: Respiratory diseases are a significant burden in terms of morbidity and mortality and, particularly as related to chronic respiratory disease, are of increasing concern. With this, there arises a need for specific, novel diagnostic and monitoring technologies to allow the early diagnosis of respiratory diseases and to monitor disease progression. With this aim in mind, researchers at Monash University in Australia have developed revolutionary non-invasive technology that can be leveraged to diagnose respiratory lung diseases, like cystic fibrosis and lung cancer, and potentially fast-track treatments for patients. Read on to know more.

The early detection and monitoring of genetic and chronic lung diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, asthma, and lung cancer, is presently hampered by the inefficiency to capture the spatial distribution of lung function in a breathing lung. Non-invasive technology can help diagnose and manage respiratory diseases, researchers for the first time, taken technology usually confined to high-tech synchrotron facilities into a standard laboratory setting, and applied new four-dimensional X-ray velocity (XV Technology) imaging to offer high-definition and sensitive real-time images of airflow through the lungs in live organisms. It is found that this latest technology can make considerable impacts on respiratory disease detection, monitoring, and treatment through non-invasive and non-terminal means.

This recent technology also has the potential to see whether treatments for respiratory illnesses are working much earlier. The technology has commercialized by Australian-based med-tech company 4Dx Limited, led by CEO and former Monash University researcher Professor Andreas Fouras. The technology has been upscaled for human clinical trials taking place in the USA, with Phase I already completed successfully.

The successful trial opens up doors for respiratory diseases to be diagnosed, treated, and managed earlier than present technology allows and at a lower radiation dose than CT scanning. The ability to perform this technique in the lab makes longitudinal studies on disease progression and treatment development feasible at facilities across the world. This latest technology is now being commercialized to maximize clinical impact.