Lung imaging research
We can help fast track promising drug discoveries, determine effectiveness early and enable clear evaluation of performance in the clinical stages.
We can help fast track promising drug discoveries, determine effectiveness early and enable clear evaluation of performance in the clinical stages.
Several imaging methods for the human lung are available and widely used. Conventional radiography, CT, MRI, and methods provided by nuclear medicine are well established. In general, these imaging modalities are used by specialists in radiology and pathology.
However, there exists a more general need for all physicians and health care providers the world over to visualize the lungs to aid in diagnosis at the point of care or to guide surgical and medical procedures at the point of procedure.
The ability to routinely provide image-based data in all resource settings to aid in screening, diagnosis, and treatment monitoring could transform global health care and the healthcare systems that provide this care.
Lung pathologies affect the lung sound transmission pathways and have both spectral, temporal and regional effects that can benefit from simultaneous measurements at multiple points of the lungs. Understanding the location of abnormal lung sounds can help identify areas of pathology as well as assessing the severity of the pathology. Spatial information can be accurately accessed using simultaneous contact based multichannel microphone recordings at different locations of the thoracic surface.
The T-Sense is a multichannel stethoscope, with 32 multichannel microphone transducers configured to be fixed over the thorax.
Each transducer generates a signal indicative of the pressure waves at the location of the transducer at the time.
Each transducer picks up vibrations as air moves in and out of the lung parenchyma.
The T-Lab is cross-platform software application used together with the T-Sense, It interprets the lung sound signals from analog to digital and provides a platform for analysis of lung sounds, sharing of lung sounds and an advanced modules for lung imaging and lung function testing.
The process of generating lung images involves determining from the multiple sound recordings the average acoustic energy, at a plurality of locations over the thorax over a time duration. The acoustic energy at a location is an indicative of the product of the pressure and the mass propagation speed at that location.
Time durations are divided into a plurality of subintervals, and an average acoustic energy determined over the thorax for two or more of the sub- intervals. An image of each of the subintervals is then determined and displayed sequentially on a smartphone, tablet or computer.
This generates a dynamic image caused by the change in the acoustic energy over a time duration. The image produced is calculated from the average acoustic energy from the region subset transducers. The output on the display screen/device with the lungs in the image being divided into lung regions.
A pathological condition may be identified in the image, and this may be in a number of ways, for example, by different colors and patterns. Pathology refers to a deviation from the normal, healthy condition of the respiratory tract. This includes infections, inflammations, tumors, pleural effusion, pneumonia, narrowing of the airways.
