Every breath you take… in 3D

Patients at Addenbrooke’s will be the first in the world to benefit from a device that monitors breathing without any contact with the body. Known as the PneumaScan, it is based on 3D motion capture technology developed in the computer game and film industries.

Assessing breathing can be vital – but existing spirometry equipment, which directly measures the air flowing in and out of the mouth, cannot be used by many patients.

Until now it has been impossible to monitor premature babies, young children, or chest injury patients accurately without using invasive procedures such as placing a tube in their airway. The same problems arise with people who are unconscious, or who have had a stroke.

The new system was developed by Dr Richard Iles, a consultant respiratory paediatrician at Addenbrooke’s, along with Cambridge University’s Department of Engineering and PneumaCare, a local company.

Dr Iles explains: “Carrying out lung function tests on some patients is very challenging. If the patient doesn’t understand what they need to do – or if they don’t want to do it – then we don’t get a useful result.”

3D imaging

The PneumaScan achieves the same results as the traditional measurements from a spirometer, but – and this is the crucial difference – it does it using light instead of physical contact.

With the patient lying, sitting or standing, a small video projector casts a checkerboard pattern onto their chest and abdomen. As they breathe in and out, their chest rises and falls – and the projected pattern changes shape.

Two cameras, one either side of the projector, record the changing pattern and feed it to a computer, where the images combine to give a 3D reconstruction of the chest.

The computer has been programmed by the University’s Department of Signal Processing to analyse the visual reference points of the checkerboard pattern, with the result showing changes in the volume of the patient’s chest – in other words, how deeply and how quickly they are breathing.

Early treatment

“This non-invasive technology has great potential for a range of specialties, including Anaesthetics and the Emergency Department,” says Dr Iles. “But it will be particularly valuable in the clinic for patients under the age of six with problems like cystic fibrosis and asthma.

“In addition, many adult lung conditions like COPD may begin in early childhood – so if PneumaScan makes it possible for us to identify them earlier, we’ll be able to start treatment at a younger age.”

Clinical trials at Addenbrooke’s are already underway – but the technology has further applications outside hospital.

“It’s simple, fast, and compact,” says Dr Iles. “You could use it anywhere from alongside a cot to the back of an ambulance. It could be used for home monitoring to help keep patients out of hospital – or even for mass screening in schools or in the workplace.”

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