Philips’ LumiGuide ‘human GPS’ technology is now available to specialised hospitals in Europe and the USA. LumiGuide uses light reflected along an optical fibre inside a guidewire to generate three-dimensional (3D), high-resolution, colour images of devices including catheters inside a patient’s body in real time, from multiple angles and views.
LumiGuide, powered by Fiber Optic RealShape (FORS) technology, enables doctors to navigate through blood vessels using light, instead of X-ray. “[It’s] one of the most exciting changes that we’ve seen with imaging certainly throughout my career,” said Andres Schanzer (UMass Memorial Medical Center, Worcester, USA). In late 2023, LumiGuide was used for the first time to treat patients in Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands, closely followed by the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the USA.
Developed in close collaboration with clinical partners, LumiGuide is made available, in first instance, to aortic centres of excellence that perform complex aortic repairs in the USA and Europe, a press release states.
LumiGuide’s radiation-free technology offers benefits for complex aortic procedures, removing physicians reliance on X-ray. With physicians tackling increasingly complex endovascular cases—such as aortic aneurysm repair—procedures can take significantly more time, resulting in a higher radiation dose for patients and clinicians.
LumiGuide uses light reflected along an optical fibre inside a guidewire to generate 3D, high-resolution, colour images of devices, including off-the-shelf catheters, inside a patient’s body in real time, from any angle and in multiple views. This means that physicians know which direction their device is facing and can see where they need to go. This navigation can be done all without X-ray.
“If we can see more, we can proceed more quickly and more confidently,” said Atul Gupta, chief medical officer for image-guided therapy and precision diagnosis at Philips and practicing interventional radiologist. “In effect, LumiGuide is a 3D human GPS system powered by light.”
Following a limited release to nine aortic centres, more than 900 patients have undergone procedures, with one site conducting a historic cohort comparison showing a 37% reduction in complex aortic procedure time, and a 56% reduction in radiation exposure (DAP) compared to X-ray.
Geert Willem Schurink, (Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands) who performed the first surgical procedure with LumiGuide, said: “This artificial intelligence-based semi-automatic registration is very quick and accurate, even in the presence of stent grafts. Especially, if there is a need to re-register the device being guided in the patient’s body during the procedure, it is extremely helpful.”
