ISRAEL: A non-invasive and radiation -free screening system helps detect disorders in internal organs, Israeli doctors say

By operating a non-invasive sensoring device on a patient's skin, an Israeli medical company says it can detect illness and abnormal functions of internal organs at an early stage without exposing patients to surgery, radiation or other traditional detection methods. Medex Screen Ltd., an Israeli company founded by a group of physicians and scientists, developed the screening system as an alternative to conventional examination procedures, like colonoscopy and mammography, which are invasive or have radiation effects. The device screens cardiovascular, gastroenterological, hepatic, immune, respiratory, endocrine, genitourinary and spinal cord systems, to detect disorders of internal organs. Called Medex Test, the system is designed for use in ambulatory care, ER services and medical clinics. During the 20-minute-long examination, the patients lie fully dressed, while a small electrode "pen" is pushed against 24 skin zones in the hands and feet. Dr. Alexander Kanevsky, a Russian-born physician who developed the device, says the sensor measures electrical skin resistance which reflects the condition of internal organs. "During our test we measure 24 zones, skin, zones from the lymphs, zones have strong intercommunication with physiology of internal organs," Kanevsky said while operating the system. The medical technology is based on neurophysiology, which assumes an intercommunication between skin and the functioning of internal organs. "If physiology of internal organ is changing it provokes change of electrical parameters of correspondent skin zones. So if some internal organ starts pathological work, impulse from this internal organ leads to spinal cord segment and then to special trunk zones or special lymph zones," Kanevsky said. The sensoring device is connected to a computer software which indicates in coloured diagrams which of the 15 body systems suffer disfunction. "Red colour means problematic organs, damaged organs, so usually after test physician focuses on red colour deviations," Kanevsky explained. Developers say the system offers an additional diagnostic tool in identifying malfunctioning body systems and can also help in monitoring treatment effectiveness. The company, based in the southern Israeli town of Omer, is still in the clinical research stage for the development of its flagship product. So far several clinical trials have been conducted in leading hospitals in Europe and in Israel. Results of those trials have shown the screening system have an average sensitivity of 84 percent and specificity of more than 90 percent. Dr. Eyal Zilichman, an internal medicine specialists at Sheba Medical Centre at Tel Hashomer hospital near Tel Aviv, headed research teams which tried the device on hundreds of patients in Israel and Italy. He said the studies conducted so far have shown Medex Test to be highly accurate. "In this time we have conducted several trials, and all trials come up with the same result which actually were quite surprising for us. We found that the sensitivity of the device was about 90 percent or 80 to 90 percent for most of the disease we were looking into. These diseases are cardio-vascular disease, respiratory disease, gastro-intestinal disease," Zilichman said. One of the trials conducted by Zilichman two years ago in Israel on patients with different forms of cancer, showed Medex Test achieved an average correlation of 80 percent in diagnosing the existence of disturbances in organs relevant to cancer, indicating 92.9% of cases of prostate cancer, 78 percent of breast cancer and 76 percent of lung cancer. Dr. Zilichman says the system could set an alternative to current conventional examination procedures, and has a potential to revolutionize current medical tests. "Theoretically this could be the revolution of the 21st century. We are talking into something that if it would hold promise to what it looks like it is going to do, it could revolutionize medicine as we know it," he said. Zilichman said more tests and research needs to be put into developing the system so it will be able to not only indicate where there is a problem, but also to diagnose the sort of problems internal organs suffer. He also said that modern medicine does not fully understand the neurophysiology links between skin and internal organs. Developing medical screening methods which are based on Chinese medicine techniques, such as acupuncture and reflexology, could be a turning point in modern conventional medicine, Zilichman said. The company's CEO, Antero Jarvinen, said that introducing the screening technique to doctors who use conventional medical tests poses a great challenge, since the method is considered groundbreaking in modern medical science terms. "Never before has this kind of measurement of skin conductivity been used to detect disorder in internal organs and that is our challenge. It is unconventional technology that we are bringing into conservative conventional medical market place," Jarvinen said. Medex Test has received the European CE certification as a screening device for early stage diagnostics of internal organs. It was also approved by the Israeli Health MInistry as safe to use. Jarvinen said the company is collecting more clinical evidence to apply for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. The company's distributors are based in Australia, Greece, Hungary and Colombia, as well as in Israel. The system is sold for between five thousand and eight thousand US dollars.

ITN Source | October 22, 2007

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