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Updated: Feb 26, 2026
Monitoring Lung Function with Electrical Impedance Tomography in the Intensive Care Unit
Published on: September 6, 2024
Electrical impedance tomography reveals ventilation and perfusion heterogeneity in infants with bronchopulmonary
Katelyn G Enzer1, Nilton Barbosa Da Rosa2, Allison Keck3
1Department of Pediatrics, Section of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA. katelyn.enzer@cuanschutz.edu.
Objective:
Preterm infants have pulmonary ventilation and perfusion abnormalities, yet few imaging modalities can inform clinicians about this ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) relationship. Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is an imaging technique with V/Q imaging capabilities that has not been well described in infants with BPD.
Study Design:
EIT was performed every 4 weeks in preterm infants for a maximum of 5 visits per infant. Term infants with healthy lungs had one EIT imaging visit as controls.
Results:
Data were collected from a total of 51 EIT visits. Novel V/Q maps were generated from each visit. Ventilation heterogeneity (measured by the global inhomogeneity index) and V/Q heterogeneity (measured by coefficient of variation of V/Q maps) were significantly higher in preterm infants at the visit closest to 36 weeks post-menstrual age than controls (p = 0.002 and p = 0.039, respectively).
Conclusions:
Pulmonary ventilation, perfusion, and V/Q relationship can be quantified by EIT, and may be indicators of chronic lung disease.
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