A Clinical Case of Three-Dimensional Electrical Impedance Tomography (3D-EIT) Measurements

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is an emerging imaging modality that assesses the bioelectrical impedance of the chest wall. It enables the generation of immediate topographical images non-invasively and without the use of radiation. However, current commercial systems are limited to single-plane measurements. Recently, we developed a prototype of a multi-slice EIT system that can reconstruct data into three-dimensional (3D) EIT images. Here, we report the first case of using 3D-EIT measurements in a patient diagnosed with severe pneumonia. A 62-year-old female presented with fever, cough, and difficulty in breathing. The patient was diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia in her bilateral lower lobes based on chest radiography, CT, and laboratory data. The patient's profile was as follows: height, 160 cm; weight, 52 kg; and chest height, 84 cm. The 3D-EIT system comprised eight electrodes per slice surface, with four fault lines positioned on a single belt. We successfully obtained four EIT slices simultaneously, which were converted to 3D-EIT representations. These four slices were almost identical to those in the CT scans. Notably, in this patient with lower-lobe pneumonia, the 3D-EIT system revealed that the air entered the upper area first, whereas the healthy volunteer breathed in the lower lobe first. We successfully performed 3D-EIT in patients with pneumonia. Specifically, in lower-lobe pneumonia cases, our findings showed a reversed airflow pattern, with air initially entering the upper area. This underscores the potential of our developed technology to offer novel insights into the vertical sequence of air inflow.