1. PneumoniaChecktm

2. The link from diagnosis to treatment

3. The Need

4. The Need
• Pneumonia is a leading cause of death in
children worldwide. Over 2 million
children die from pneumonia each year
and one child dies every 20 seconds.
• The problem with current diagnosis
methods is one of sampling. Mouth and
nose samples have contaminating
bacteria, which result in many false
positives.
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5. The Need
• Additionally, the samples are unable to
identify the pathogen; hospital stays are
lengthened increasing the chances that
cases will become complicated.
• Since the pathogen cannot be
identified, patients receive broadspectrum antibiotics, which are often
unnecessary and can cause antibiotic
resistance.
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6. The Need
• Other methods, such as a chest xray, can identify fluid in the lungs, but
cannot identify the specific pathogen
causing the pneumonia.
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7. The Need
“Antimicrobial resistance is one of our
most serious health threats.
Infections from resistant bacteria are now
too common, and some pathogens have
even become resistant to multiple types or
classes of antibiotics.”
Dr. Tom Frieden, MD, MPH
Director, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Meeting the Challenges of Drug-Resistant Diseases in Developing Countries
Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Human
Rights, and International Organizations
United States House of Representatives
April 23, 2013
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8. The Need
• Antibiotic resistance is one of the world's
most pressing public health threats.
• Antibiotics are the most important tool
we have to combat life-threatening
bacterial disease, but using antibiotics
can also result in side effects.
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9. The Need
• Antibiotic use leads to new drugresistant germs and increased risks to
patients.
• Patients, healthcare providers, hospital
administrators and policy makers must
work together to employ safe and
effective strategies for improving
antibiotic use—ultimately saving lives.
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10. “ANTIBIOTIC STEWARDSHIP”
CDC; Antibiotic resistance threats in the United States, 2013

11. The Device

12. The Device
• PneumoniaCheck uses fluid mechanics
to separate the upper airway particles
from the lower airway particles.
• The separation means that only a lung
specimen is captured on the filter media
at the end of the device.
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13. The Device
• This filter can then be analyzed using
traditional microbiology methods or
more sensitive molecular DNA analysis
to identify the specific pathogen causing
pneumonia, or other lower respiratory
infections.
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14. The Device
• The ability to identify the specific
pathogen will allow for more targeted
antibiotic treatment or none at all if
viral, which should reduce antibiotic
resistance and other complications.
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15. The Device
• PneumoniaCheck is an easy-touse, noninvasive, disposable solution
for collecting respiratory specimens to
help reduce one of the world’s largest
health problems.
• PneumoniaCheck may be used on
patients three feet and taller.
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16. Methods used today

17. Methods to determine if patients
have pneumonia
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•
•
•
•
•
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Medical history
Physical exam
Chest x-rays
Blood tests
Blood culture
Sputum collection
CT; Chest Computed Tomography Scan
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18. Methods to determine if patients
have pneumonia
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•
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•
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Bronchoscopy; BAL medical history
Thoracentesis; Pleural fluid culture
Pulse oximetry
Nasal swab
Urine antigen
Throat swab
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19. Current sampling data are not reliable
•
•
Specimens are very often contaminated
from the upper respiratory resulting in
many false positives.
This leads to broad antibiotic treatment
because the actual pathogen causing
the pneumonia is usually never
identified.
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20. The Solution

21. Distributed By ARC Medical
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22. Development
PneumoniaCheck was developed and
designed to collect aerosol specimens
selectively from the lower lung generated
during a deep cough.
PneumoniaCheck utilizes a separation
reservoir and specially designed
mouthpiece to segregate contents from
the upper airway and the lower lungs.
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23. Development
PneumoniaCheck uses fluid mechanics to
isolate lung pathogens onto the filter.
Fluid mechanics is the branch of physics
that studies fluids (liquids, gases, and
plasmas) and the forces on them.
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24. Development
PneumoniaCheck includes several
specially designed features to exclude
oral contaminants from the sample and a
filter to collect the aerosolized pathogens
from the lower lungs.
The filter can collect >99.97% of virus and
bacteria sized particles from the sampled
lower lung aerosols.
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25. •
•
•
To use PneumoniaCheck, a patient
simply coughs deeply into the
mouthpiece and expels the remaining
air in his or her lungs.
Squeeze the gas reservoir bag empty
and then repeat when ready.
This action should be repeated as
many times as necessary to collect a
sufficient sample of lower respiratory
aerosolized pathogens.
…recommend collecting 10 coughs
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26. The air from the upper respiratory is
collected in a reservoir, and aerosols from
the lower respiratory are captured on a
microbial filter.
PneumoniaCheck can then be sent to a
laboratory to be tested for the presence
of various pathogens.
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27. Collecting noninvasive, uncontaminated,
lower lung aerosols
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28. Collecting noninvasive, uncontaminated,
lower lung aerosols
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29. Collecting noninvasive, uncontaminated,
lower lung aerosols
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30. Questions?
ARC Medical Inc.
PneumoniaCheck
arcmedical.com