Measurement of Electrical Skin Impedance of Dermal-Visceral Zones as a Diagnostic Tool for Inner Organ Pathologies: A Blinded Preliminary Evaluation of a New Technique
Eyal Zimlichman MD, Amnon Lahad MD, Anabel Aron-Maor MD, Alexander Kanevsky MD and Yehuda Shoenfeld MD. Abstract Background: As complementary and alternative medicine is gaining popularity among health consumers, diagnostic screening tools based on neuroreflexology are also being developed. These techniques, which are based on the rationale that measurement of electrical impedance of specific dermatomes reflects corresponding internal organ pathologies, have not yet been the subject of conventional scientific research.
Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of a neuroreflexology-based screening test, specifically the Medex device (Medex Screen Ltd.), for diagnosing patients undergoing conventional internal organ assessment, in a hospital setting.
Methods: Patients admitted to an internal medicine department, who met the inclusion criteria and agreed to participate, underwent conventional medical evaluation that included past medical history and physical examination. Another examination was conducted by a second physician using the Medex device to determine internal organ pathologies. A third researcher compared the actual “conventional” diagnosis with the Medex device output using standard statistical analysis.
Results: Overall, 150 patients participated in the study. Correlation was significant for all categories (P < 0.01) except for blood and lymphatic disease. A high sensitivity (>70%) was measured for cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal and genitourinary diseases. The highest measure of agreement, as represented by the Cohen-Kappa factor, was found for respiratory disease (0.57).
Conclusions: Although the exact mechanism is not entirely clear, measurement of electroskin impedance of dermal-visceral zones has the potential to serve as a screening tool for inner organ pathologies. Further research should be conducted to create more evidence to support or dispute the use of this technique as a reliable diagnostic tool.
October 2005 Vol 7. Issue 10
The Israel Medical Association Journal (IMAJ)
http://www.ima.org.il/imaj/
Medex Test, a novel modality for liver disease diagnosis – a pilot study
Yoav Lurie MD*, Dan-avi Landau MD, Alex Kanevsky MD, Sara Pel PhD, Shira Zelber-Sagie MA, Ran Oren, MD
The article was accepted for publication in "Clinical Gastroenterology".
Abstract.
Background & Aims: Liver diseases are common and are associated with significant morbidity and health related expenditure. Although cost-effective treatments are available, disease is often symptom free until late in its course. "Medex Test", is the non-invasive transcutaneous detection of liver abnormalities by the measurement of changes in the electrical impedance of certain dermal zones. This method is based on neuroreflexology, a branch of complementary medicine. This study addressed two questions: first, can "Medex Test" detect liver disease, and second, can it measure the severity of a known liver disease.
Methods: This blinded case- control study included two parts. First, 113 patients with a known liver disease (Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B, and Non-Alcoholic fatty liver disease) and 85 controls with no known liver disease were evaluated by the "Medex Test" device. Second, necro-inflammatory grading of biopsy results of 60 patients with chronic Hepatitis C were compared with grade determined by "Medex Test".
Results: "Medex Test" detected with high sensitivity (85%) and specificity (94.1%) the presence of liver disorders. The high sensitivity rates were similar for the different liver disorders and were independent of age and gender. Additionally, "Medex Test" matched the biopsy based pathological grading of necro-inflammation in 78% of hepatitis C patients. Positive predictive value was not affected by age and gender and was better for higher degree of necro-inflammation.
Conclusions: This pilot study demonstrated the ability of "Medex Test" to detect with high accuracy the presence of liver disorders and to determine the necro-inflammatory grade. This non-invasive, low cost test may in the future become an important tool in the diagnosis and management of liver disorders. We believe the further study of this novel method is warranted.
Medex Test, a novel modality for liver disease diagnosis – a pilot study
Measurement of Electrical Skin Impedance as a Diagnostic Tool in the Practice of Occupational Health
R.N. Doeve MD; A.A.J. Houtsma MD; E.H. Hoeksma MD; E.W. Middelkoop MD, Arbo Unie, Company for Occupational Health, Emmen/Utrecht the Netherlands, Prof. J.W. Groothoff MD, Faculty of Occupational Health; UMCG (University Medical Centre Groningen)
This letter demonstrates the results of trial that was conducted in Chipper Hospital, Emmen, as a mutual scientific work etween "Medex Screen", Hospital and Occupational Health Insurance Company "Arbo Unie". During annual check up of hospital’s staff and employers of other Dutch companies (as Honewell) was proved a high statistical accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of "Medex Scan".
Measurement of Electrical Skin Impedance as a Diagnostic Tool in the Practice of Occupational Health
Measurement of electrical skin impedance of dermal-visceral zones as a diagnostic tool for disorders of the immune system
M Gerosa1†, E Zimlichman2†, D Ventura1, V Fanelli1, P Riboldi1 and PL Meroni1* 1Allergy, Clinical Immunology & Rheumatology Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Milan, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy; and 2Department of Medicine ‘B’, Center for Autoimmune Diseases, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel
Among complementary medicine approaches, diagnostic screening tools based on neuroreflexology have been recently developed. Such techniques are based on the rationale that measurement of electrical impedance of specific dermal zones might reflect the occurrence of pathological states in the corresponding internal organs or systems. Our objective was to evaluate the reliability of a
neuroreflexology-based diagnostic test in diagnosing immune-mediated diseases in a blinded single centre study. Seventy-eight patients with immune-mediated diseases (38 patients with autoimmune diseases (AD), and 40 allergic patients) were included in the study. Thirty age and sex matched healthy subjects were also evaluated as a control group. All the patients and subjects underwent
conventional medical history and physical examination. We evaluated a device manufactured by Medex Screen Ltd (Arad, Israel). The Medex Test analysis was carried out by a second physician who was blinded to the previous diagnosis. A high correlation between the formal clinical diagnosis and the results of the measurement of electrical skin impedance was reported, with a specificity of 93.3%
and a sensitivity of 81.2%. Both sensitivity and specificity dropped when analysing the autoimmune and the allergic group separately, but remained significant for the autoimmune diseases. Degree of activity of the allergic disorders, or specific treatment, did not affect the diagnostic properties of the described device. The Medex Test neurophysiology based technique has the potential to serve as a
diagnostic tool for immune based pathologies. Future studies will define this tool place in routine evaluation and potential screening ability.
Key words: allergic diseases; Medex screen; non-conventional medicine; skin impedance; systemic
autoimmune diseases;
Lupus (2006) 15, 457–461www.lupus-journal.com
Measurement of electrical skin impedance of dermal-visceral zones as a diagnostic tool for disorders of the immune system