Development of a real time monitor for lung ventilation and perfusion using high accurate electrical impedance tomography

通常，计算机断层扫描（CT）已被用于诊断肺部疾病。然而，患者需要去实验室进行CT测量，这对患者来说非常困难。因此，有必要在床边对肺部病变进行局部区域监测。电阻抗断层扫描（EIT）已成为一种可行的肺功能评估技术。然而，它尚未被认为是一种临床可接受的方法。我们曾建议使用“肺密度”作为使用EIT数据集的肺功能的绝对测量，但未将其与肺病患者的临床结果进行比较。在本研究中，我们开发了专门的软件来估计肺密度，并比较了CT值（HU）和肺密度（kg/m3），尽管它们代表了肺组织的不同物理性质。此外，还开发了一种易于使用且非常紧凑的可穿戴式EIT。

Generally, computed tomography (CT) has been used for diagnosis of lung disease. However, a patient needs to go to a laboratory for CT measurement that is very hard for a patient. Therefore, there is a need for local regional monitoring of lung lesions at the bedside. Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) has become a feasible technique to evaluate lung function. However, it is yet to be considered as a clinically acceptable method for that. We had proposed the use of 'lung density' as an absolute measure of lung function using EIT data sets, but had not compared it with clinical results from patients with lung disease. In this study, we had developed special software to estimate lung density and compared CT values (HU) and lung density (kg/m3), though representing different physical properties of lung tissue. Furthermore, a wearable EIT had been developed that could be easy to use and very compact.