Sentec announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted 510(k) clearance for its LuMon™ Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) system for premature infant, infant, adolescent, and adult patients. This milestone makes the LuMon™ system the first EIT technology in the United States available for premature infants and for spontaneously breathing patients.
The LuMon™ EIT System delivers functional lung imaging directly at the bedside without radiation, helping clinicians better tailor therapy to each patient's unique needs. The system is also CE-marked under EU MDR and registered with TGA in Australia.
Addressing Critical Needs in Neonatal Care
While the LuMon™ System can monitor various patients, whether ventilated or spontaneously breathing, premature infants and other patients in the NICU may benefit most from EIT's bedside insights.
"Neonatal patients present enormous complexity, especially for ventilation; there's very little room for error, particularly in our smallest patients – and the consequences can follow these babies all their lives," said Dr. David Tingay, Clinical Neonatologist and Respiratory Physiotherapist at Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.
Dr. Tingay, who has conducted extensive research with the LuMon™ EIT system in infant patients, explained the clinical challenge: "Without EIT, there's been no way for us to continuously see what is happening inside the lungs at the bedside to understand the impact of our interventions better as we perform them."
Real-Time Lung Function Visualization
The ability to safely visualize lung function at the bedside, continuously and in real time, has enormous potential for guiding neonatal care. According to Dr. Tingay, "EIT provides immediate imaging of regional lung function at the bedside. That visualization helps us better understand each patient's respiratory condition and determine the strategies we need to employ for their specific needs."
With the first-ever FDA clearance for premature infants and soft, fabric belts small enough for even very low birthweight infants, the LuMon™ System is positioned to help clinicians deliver gentle and effective respiratory care for the uniquely fragile and complex patients in the NICU.
Technology and Clinical Applications
Electrical impedance tomography works by sending gentle, alternating currents through the thorax via a comfortable, skin-friendly fabric belt and measuring the resulting voltages to produce dynamic images of regional impedance variations due to breathing. This enables clinicians to evaluate real-time responses to regional ventilation changes such as those resulting from positioning, ventilator settings, and pharmaceuticals, facilitating more precise and individualized care decisions.
Designed for critical care environments, including neonatal, pediatric, and adult intensive care units, the LuMon™ System enables bedside monitoring of regional impedance variations in the thorax to support assessment of a patient's respiratory status. This information assists in the real-time evaluation of air distribution and lung recruitment, supporting timely interventions that may help improve patient outcomes.
While the basis of electrical impedance tomography and its use for imaging regional lung function has been present in research for many years, the LuMon™ system is the first EIT technology available for routine clinical bedside use with premature infants in the United States, and can impact patient care and clinical decision making today.
