The Interactive Breath-hold Control

Remember our exclusive story (March 16, 2006: EXCLUSIVE: Interactive Breath Monitor for Lung Biopsy) about Mayo Clinic’s device designed to simplify the CT-guided lung biopsy process? Well, after ten months, the device has officially been announced:

The Interactive Breath-hold Control device measures the breathing of the patient using a simple light display. The wireless display device, which is about the size of a handheld video game, consists of a simple belt with expandable bellows that are wrapped around a patient’s upper abdomen or lower chest, individual light displays located next to the patient, the radiologist’s image monitor, the CT operator console, and a system control unit located next to the patient on the CT table.
“By focusing on the display, patients can easily adjust their breathing and consistently reproduce the same reference breath-hold level,” says Stephanie Carlson, M.D., a Mayo Clinic radiologist and lead investigator of the project. “This allows the radiologist to conduct a more accurate and safe procedure in less time than if the target area of the lesion were moving.”
Prior to the development of this device, CT-guided biopsies were more difficult for radiologists and patients because respiratory motion and inconsistent breath holding by the patients could obscure the exact target area of a lesion and cause the target nodule to move out of the field of view during the procedure, particularly if the lesions are small or in difficult to reach locations.
The Interactive Breath hold Control allows radiologists to perform biopsies on smaller and more difficult to access nodules during a 30- to 45-minute CT-guided procedure. The patient can return home the same day with nothing more than a Band-aid. In the past, difficult lung biopsies would require a surgical procedure resulting in a two- to four-day stay in the hospital.

What is not clear to us is why IBM was completely excluded from the announcement. After all, IBM engineers and designers did work together with Mayo Clinic to develop the device, and have provided consulting and expertise to the Mayo Clinic.
The press release…
Product page…
(hat tip: MTB Europe)