Passive Microwave Radiometry (MWR) and AI for COVID-19 Complications Early Diagnostics of Lungs

Summary

World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 it as a global pandemic. It becomes clear that the virus spreading mostly deadly due to limited to access to diagnostics tests and equipment. Traditional radiography and CT remain the main methods of the initial examination of the chest organs. Now, most of the diagnostics has been focused on PCR, chest x-Ray/CT manifestations of COVID-19. However, there are problems with CT due to infection control issues, the inefficiencies introduced in CT room decontamination, and lack of CT availability in LMIC (Low Middle Income Countries). Passive microwave radiometry (MWR) is a cheap, non-radioactive and portable technology. It has already been used for diagnostics of cancer, and other diseases. The investigators have tested if MWR could be used for early diagnostics of pulmonary COVID-19 complications.

This was a randomized controlled trial (195 subjects) to evaluate the effectiveness of diagnostics using MWR in patients with pneumonia caused by COVID-19 while they are in hospitals of Kyrgyzstan, and healthy individuals.

The investigator have measured skin (IR) and internal (MWR) temperature by recording passive electromagnetic radiation through the chest wall in the projection of the lungs at 30 symmetrical points on both sides. Pneumonia and lung damage were diagnosed by X-RAY/CT scan and doctor's final diagnosis (pn+/pn-). COVID-19 was determined by PCR test (covid+/covid-).

Overall, the study suggests that the use of MWR is a convenient and safe method for screening diagnostics in COVID-19 patients with suspected pneumonia. Since MWR is an inexpensive, it will ease the financial burden for both patients and the countries, especially in LMIC

Conditions

• Covid19

Interventions

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Passive Microwave Radiometry

The MWR2020 (ormer RTM-01-RES) device is a unique commercially available CE marked device. It is registered in UK MHRA MDN 40802 as Microwave thermography system for clinical studies. The device is already registered in Kyrgyzstan for breast cancer diagnostics. During the 1980-90s there were several works on identification of excess of microwave emission due to fluid in lungs (on phantoms) which could be indication of inflammatory, process, cancer and other lung disorders.Later results were confirmed by clinical studies for lung cancer

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Edinburgh

  collaborator OTHER

• IMU University, Malaysia

  collaborator OTHER

• Kyrgyz State Medical Academy

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

DIAGNOSTIC

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

75 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-07-01

Primary Completion

2020-07-25

Completion

2020-08-01

Countries

• Kyrgyzstan

Study Locations