Product FAQ

PneumaCare strives to continue to work directly with the clinical environment providing breakthrough technologies that transform the current standard of healthcare. One of the main design aspects of all PneumaCare products is 'ease-of-use'. To achieve this, we work with our end-users to provide answers to frequent questions relating to the SLP technology and the PneumaCare family of products. If your questions are not answered below, please submit them to our PneumaCare team and we will endeavour to answer you directly and post the information for other users.

• How does SLP and the scanning work?
  By projecting a standard light image onto the patient's chest, two cameras record the chest wall movement, create a 3D image, and calculate the movement over time, allowing the user to translate this into a volume measurement. Similar motion-tracking methodologies are already used in the movie and computer gaming industries; PneumaCare has improved upon these processes and validated them for medical use.
• How can I be confident the data output is accurate?
  The PneumaCare family of products are CE approved for sale and pending 510(k) approval for the USA. Due to the non-contact nature of measurement, the scanning process has been measured simultaneously with a pneumotachometer. As the pneumotachometer is the current standard, PneumaCare chose to use this as a benchmark, although its own family of products deliver a much higher standard of information. The results of a direct comparison in healthy adults showed consistency of measurement with r values of 0.90 or better, thus meeting the current ERS and ATS standards.
• Can the patient be measured when moving?
  The best results from the PneumaScan™ and Thora-3DI™ are obtained when the patient is in a seated, lying or supine position, and not moving. The 'light' grid should remain positioned on the patient from the clavicle to the lower abdomen and from the centre of the left side of the left areola to the right side of the right areola during measurement. If the patient moves out of this frame, the measurement results can be affected.
• Is there variation between sequential measurements due to variations in the grid placement?
  The centring of the grid at the base of the sternum helps minimise any variation of placement. As long as the grid is centred and the coverage is correct, there should be minimal variation in sequential measurement results.
• On what age range can I use these devices?
  Both the PneumaScan™ and Thora-3DI™ are applicable for any patient age range. Both devices come equipped with a series of grids to accommodate a wide range of patient sizes. As long as a grid can be properly positioned on the patient's chest without overflowing onto the sides, the patient can be measured.
• Can you measure total and residual volumes?
  At present, this is not possible. Due to the non-contact measurement methodology, the products measure chest wall movement and therefore measure the maximum and minimum respiration movement but cannot account for residual volumes.