Utility of thoracic impendance in the follow-up of idiopathic pulmunary fibrosis

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a disease characterized by the progressive scarring of lung tissue, which causes a impairment of the lungs' ability to perform their physiological function, that is to transfer oxygen from ambient air to blood and carbon dioxide from blood to air.

It predominantly affects males between 50 and 70 years old and, unfortunately, it has a poor prognosis, with an average survival approximately of 3-5 years. 

In a recent study¹ published by researchers from Research Module 4 of flagship project TINCARE, the capacity of a non-invasive monitoring system (ReDS^TM - Remote Dielectric Sensing) was tested for this first time to estimate the degree of pulmonary fibrosis in patient suffering from IPF. This device, by placing a sensor on the patient's shoulder, enables the measurement of lung tissue water content and has previously been validated in patients with heart failure². 

In this study, they demonstrated that water percentage measured with ReDS is higher in a group of 52 patients with IPF compared to healthy subjects, and that higher is the obtained value lower is the lung's functional capacity. 

If the results of this study are confirmed in larger populations, it could open the way for the use of this non-invasive tool in monitoring IPF patients.  

Citations

1. Respir Med. 2023 Oct; 217:107370.

2. J Clin Med. 2023 Jan 11;12(2):598.