Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 10, 2025
Monitoring Lung Function with Electrical Impedance Tomography in the Intensive Care Unit
Published on: September 6, 2024
Regional ventilation dynamics of electrical impedance tomography validated with four-dimensional computed tomography:
Shinshu Katayama1,2, Ken Tonai3, Kie Nakamura4
1Division of Intensive Care, Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Jichi Medical University School of Medicine, 3311-1, Yakushiji, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, 329-0498, Japan. shinsyu_k@jichi.ac.jp.
Background:
The dynamic regional accuracy of electrical impedance tomography has not yet been validated. We aimed to compare the regional accuracy of electrical impedance tomography with that of four-dimensional computed tomography during dynamic ventilation.
Methods:
This single-center, prospective, observational study conducted in a general intensive care unit included adult patients receiving mechanical ventilation from July 2021 to February 2024. The patients were mechanically ventilated passively and underwent electrical impedance tomography and four-dimensional computed tomography on the same day.
Results:
Overall, 45 patients were analyzed. The correlation coefficients in regional dynamic ventilation between four-dimensional computed tomography and electrical impedance tomography in each region were 0.963, 0.963, 0.835 (ventral, central, and dorsal, respectively) in the right lung and 0.947, 0.927, 0.823 (ventral, central, and dorsal, respectively) in the left lung. The correlation coefficient was low when the regional ventilation distribution detected by the electrical impedance tomography was < 2%. After excluding nine patients with a regional ventilation distribution of < 2%, the ventral, central, and dorsal correlation coefficients were 0.963, 0.963, and 0.946 in the right lung and 0.942, 0.924, and 0.951, respectively, in the left lung.
Conclusions:
Regional ventilation using electrical impedance tomography during dynamic ventilation was highly accurate and consistent with the time phase compared to four-dimensional computed tomography. Given the high correlation between these modalities, they can contribute significantly to further studies on regional ventilation dynamics. Trial registration number ClinicalTrials.gov (No. UMIN00044386).
