Painless Alternative to Liver Biopsy

Using a new technique, painful liver biopsies--in which a long hollow needle is pressed into the abdomen to diagnose infectious disease--can be eliminated, since patients need only to breathe into a device to determine whether they have hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), or other infectious liver diseases.

The new device provides results in 40 minutes. It was developed by Oridion Systems Ltd., (Jerusalem, Israel), which, together with Dr. Uri Geiger, set up a daughter company called Breath ID to commercialize the device. Using the new methodology, doctors have checked 150 HCV patients at Hadassah Medical Center (Jerusalem, Israel) and another 300 patients have been checked outside Israel.

BreathID is able to diagnose and monitor a number of functional gastrointestinal and internal disorders such as Helicobacter pylori infection, impaired liver function, and impaired gastric emptying rate. The system is ideal for a wide range of patients, including those who suffer from functional dyspepsia, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, liver diseases such as HCV and HBV, and alcoholism. Other tests are being developed.

Oridion Systems Ltd. has sold all the assets of Oridion BreathID to BreathID Ltd. The new company is controlled by Dr. Geiger, a private investment company, and Hadasit Medical Research and Development Ltd. (Jerusalem, Israel), the technology commercialization arm of the Hadassah Hospital Group, also headquartered in Jerusalem.

"The establishment of Breath ID will allow us to advance the progress of diagnosing infectious liver diseases and may even reveal ways of treating these diseases,” said Dr. Rafi Hostein, CEO of Hadasit.



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