Sampling Device Improves the Diagnosis of Pneumonia

The PneumoniaCheck, developed by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech, Savannah, USA) is designed to collect bacterial lung specimens, similar to a noninvasive bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). A patient coughs into the device to fill up a balloon-like upper airway reservoir before the lung aerosols go into a filter. Using fluid mechanics, the PneumoniaCheck then separates the upper airway particles of the mouth from the lower airway particles coming from the lungs; the aerosols are collected on a medical-grade microbial filter. The potential pathogens are detected on the filter using sensitive advanced Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) techniques to identify small amounts of bacterial DNA that is specific to each organism.

The device includes features that may help to reduce contamination and false positives from oral flora often seen with conventional sputum samples, and allows for personalized therapy against infections for better clinical outcomes. Currently, over US$30 billion are spent in the hospitalizations and treatment of antibiotic resistant infections; obtaining a sample from the lungs is therefore critical in appropriate selection of antibiotics, antivirals, and antifungals. Uncontaminated sampling has the potential to reduce 55,000 deaths in the United States alone each year, and reduce health care costs by over $10 billion.

"Georgia Tech created a simple and new device to detect the lung pathogens causing pneumonia,” said David Ku, PhD, MD, a professor of mechanical engineering at Georgia tech, and a professor of surgery at Emory University. "It has the potential to save more lives than any other medical device.”

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