気管支肺異形成症の乳児における換気および灌流の不均一性を明らかにする電気インピーダンス断層撮影法

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.

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.

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).

Pulmonary ventilation, perfusion, and V/Q relationship can be quantified by EIT, and may be indicators of chronic lung disease.