FDA Cleared MediPines Gas Exchange Monitor Measures Freedivers' Lung Efficiency in Ground-Breaking Study

ORANGE COUNTY, Calif., April 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Novel physiologic results on world elite freedivers' using the non-invasive MediPines Gas Exchange Monitor (https://bit.ly/2YVAG1M) were presented at the Experimental Biology 2019 conference. Dr. Philip Ainslie, Co-Director of the Centre for Heart, Lung and Vascular Health at the University of British Columbia, with his research team, conducted the study in Split, Croatia.

The recently FDA 510(k) cleared, MediPines Gas Exchange Monitor is a breakthrough, portable respiratory monitoring device invented to provide real-time, clinically actionable data. This ground-breaking technology is transforming the approach to measuring pulmonary gas exchange in a wide variety of clinical settings, relevant for the 33 million patients in the US (350 million globally), who suffer from respiratory disease.

The physiological demands placed on these world-class athletes are tremendous. "The transient stress on their lungs is similar to what is observed in patients who suffer from cardiac and respiratory disease." It has been challenging, in the past, to assess the consequences of deep dives on pulmonary gas exchange, especially during true field-based conditions. "Measuring oxygen deficit has allowed us to establish the impact of 'lung squeeze' on gas exchange inefficiency in elite freedivers," stated Dr. Philip Ainslie.

Oxygen deficit was developed for detecting gas exchange inefficiency using a simple, non-invasive method.  "Understanding gas exchange inefficiency in respiratory patients is fundamental to improving patient outcomes," according to Dr. John B. West, the world-renowned physiologist who pioneered the concept.

Freedivers place themselves in extreme conditions, which push the outer limits of human lung physiology and can lead to high oxygen deficit. The device provided rapid feedback to the research team tasked with assessing the freedivers' gas exchange status. "We hope that our device will continue to aid clinicians by providing patients' respiratory status rapidly and conveniently in situations where direct gas exchange measurement is either difficult or impossible; the device also has clear application to field-based conditions," said Steve Lee, CEO of MediPines. 

About MediPines:

MediPines Corporation, based in Orange County, California, is a pioneering medical device company established to advance respiratory medicine. For more information, visit https://medipines.com/.

For more information about University of British Columbia's Centre for Heart, Lung and Vascular Health, visit https://chlvh.ok.ubc.ca/.

SOURCE MediPines

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