Studies Show Respiratory Motion Patient Monitor May be Early Warning System for Respiratory Depression

WALTHAM, Mass., Oct. 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Respiratory Motion, Inc. – Research to be presented at Anesthesiology 2014 and the Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine (SASM) 4th Annual Meeting suggests that innovative technology from Respiratory Motion, Inc., may provide the early-warning system for respiratory depression that physicians have long sought to save lives and improve outcomes for thousands of patients annually.

Study findings will be presented during five sessions over the coming week in New Orleans, where the American Society of Anesthesiologists is holding its annual Anesthesiology conference and the Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine (SASM) is also meeting. Presentations will show that Respiratory Motion's technology, called the ExSpiron™ Patient Monitor, is more sensitive than capnography and pulse oximetry, and more effectively identifies subtle changes in respiration that foreshadow life-threatening respiratory depression.

The innovative ExSpiron Monitor is the only device that monitors respiratory volume non-invasively.  It offers real‐time monitoring and diagnostics that display an EKG-like trace of respiratory function.

"Evidence is growing that the ExSpiron Monitor is a significantly more sensitive and reliable indicator of a patient's respiration," said Dr. Jenny E. Freeman, Respiratory Motion's founder and CEO. "The sensitivity means our monitor can detect subtle ventilation changes far earlier than competing technologies – and long before a patient actually enters respiratory depression. This means doctors can do more than monitor respiratory depression.  They can detect it earlier and prevent it."

Findings from studies of the ExSpiron Monitor, will fuel five sessions at the New Orleans meetings:

• A SASM workshop, "Postoperative Monitoring and Non-Invasive Ventilation," will compare various respiratory monitoring options, highlighting the finding that minute ventilation, or the tracking of a patient's respiratory volume in a one minute, is more precise than other technologies.
• A SASM presentation, "Minute Ventilation Formulas in Obese Surgical Patients," will show that respiratory volume monitoring more precisely measures the ventilation of non-intubated patients and may identify changes in ventilation much earlier than other monitoring technology.
• An Anesthesiology 2014 presentation, "Defining Minute Ventilation in Obese Surgical Patients," will show that respiratory volume monitoring can identify ventilation changes more quickly and precisely than alternative technology.
• An Anesthesiology 2014 poster presentation, "The relationship between minute ventilation and etCO₂ in intubated and spontaneously breathing patients," shows that respiratory volume monitoring may be more sensitive than capnography in patients who are awake and breathing spontaneously.
• An Anesthesiology 2014 poster presentation, "Non-Invasive Respiratory Volume Monitoring vs. Capnography at Various Respiratory Rates in Non-Intubated Subjects," shows that volume monitoring "is potentially a better tool [than capnography] to measure adequacy of ventilation in non-intubated patients."

In the hospital, changes in breathing status often precede deterioration towards respiratory depression and cardiac arrest. In-hospital cardiopulmonary arrests are estimated to be as high as 750,000 a year and may lead to 50,000 deaths annually.  The most common events preceding these cardiopulmonary arrests are respiratory.

Respiratory depression can occur partly in response to medications, such as narcotic painkillers and sedatives commonly administered after surgery. Because the strength of these medications and each patient's response is unique, respiratory depression can strike when least expected. Averting respiratory failure through early detection can reduce catastrophic events, improve patient care and outcomes, decrease healthcare costs and save lives.

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality finds the annual costs of respiratory insufficiency, arrest and failure was $7.8 billion in 2007, making respiratory issues the third most rapidly increasing hospital inpatient cost in the United States: http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb91.jsp

Respiratory volume measurement is used to monitor the amount of air actually breathed by a patient. In 2012, Respiratory Motion won U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance for its revolutionary ExSpiron monitoring system, the first technology to provide continuous, non-invasive respiration volume in spontaneously breathing patients.

About Respiratory Motion, Inc. 

Respiratory Motion, Inc. is a medical device company based in Waltham, Mass., that develops innovative technology to monitor respiration and help clinicians and hospitals improve patient safety and outcomes. The company's monitoring systems can identify patients who are at risk for life-threatening respiratory depression. This allows physicians to prevent the dangerous condition before it harms a patient. To learn more, visit www.respiratorymotion.com.

SOURCE Respiratory Motion, Inc.