NEOSONICS

Project "NEOSONICS" data sheet

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 Project objective

Bacterial meningitis is one of the most serious infections for infants and children, which is associated with acute complications and chronic morbidity. Untreated bacterial meningitis is highly fatal, leaving serious neurological sequelae in survivors and crippling children for their life. Because the prognosis worsens with delayed treatment, early detection aids clinician in providing a timely intervention, to institute, appropriate antibiotic therapy. However, detection of meningitis can be challenging due to the minimum symptomology of the disease and particularly in newborns and young infants, the most vulnerable since their immunological system is yet being developed, for their inability to communicate. Paediatricians have the daily challenge of diagnosing 2.5M infants younger of one year in Europe each year who may have only fever that may be caused by an infection and, although the incidence is relatively low, it can be meningitis. The only method to detect the presence or absence of the disease is a lumbar puncture, an invasive, cumbersome and time-consuming and cost-ineffective procedure that, in industrialised countries, is negative in 95% of cases. The imperious need for quick, easy and cost-effective detection makes Neosonic (NS) a unique solution for non-invasively screen for bacterial meningitis in infants. The innovative and sophisticated precision-engineering system using high-frequency ultrasound is placed in the fontanel of the infant, the area of the skull where bones remain unwelded for babies. With the push of a button NS measures the number of White Blood Cells in the CerebroSpinal Fluid. Therefore, only if CSF WBC count is increased should an LP be performed and antibiotic treatment for meningitis be administered. Furthermore, NS allows to follow up patient treatment response by means of monitoring CSF WBC concentration, which decays with a positive response. Currently, repeated LPs for follow-up are rarely performed due to its associated risk