Characteristics and topic trends on electrical impedance tomography hardware publications

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Imaging
• Electrical Engineering

Background:

• Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) measures tissue electrical properties, with EIT instrumentation being a key research area.
• Advancements in integrated circuits and microchips drive innovation in EIT hardware performance.
• Numerous studies on EIT hardware have been published, necessitating an analysis of research trends.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify developing hotspots and trends in electrical impedance tomography (EIT) hardware research.
• To conduct a bibliometric analysis of EIT hardware publications from 1989 to 2021.

Main Methods:

• Bibliometric analysis of 592 publications on EIT hardware from the Web of Science Core Collection (1989-2021).
• Utilization of CiteSpace and VOS viewer software for analyzing publication characteristics.
• Identification of prolific countries, institutions, authors, and research topics.

Main Results:

• A steady increase in annual EIT hardware publications was observed.
• China, England, and South Korea are leading countries in EIT hardware research.
• Key research areas include bio-electrical impedance imaging, hardware optimization, algorithms, and clinical applications (lung, brain, oncology). Pulmonary and hemodynamic applications focus on monitoring, while tumor and brain applications emphasize diagnostic precision. Electrode development is a consistent focus.
• Future trends indicate a focus on imaging precision and hardware optimization for bioavailability.

Conclusions:

• EIT hardware research is expanding, with significant contributions from China, England, and South Korea.
• Future research directions emphasize improving system performance, specifically bandwidth and application precision.
• Enhanced imaging precision and bioavailability of hardware are critical for future advancements in EIT.