Andreas D. Waldmann

Variation of poorly ventilated lung units (silent spaces) measured by electrical impedance tomography to dynamically assess recruitment

BackgroundAssessing alveolar recruitment at different positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) levels is a major clinical and research interest because protective ventilation implies opening the lung without inducing overdistention. The pressure-volume (P-V) curve is a validated method of assessing recruitment but reflects global characteristics, and changes at the regional level may remain undetected. The aim of the present study was to compare, in intubated patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure (AHRF) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), lung recruitment measured by P-V curve analysis, with dynamic changes in poorly ventilated units of the dorsal lung (dependent silent spaces [DSSs]) assessed by electrical impedance tomography (EIT). We hypothesized that DSSs might represent a dynamic bedside measure of recruitment.MethodsWe carried out a prospective interventional study of 14 patients with AHRF and ARDS admitted to the intensive care unit undergoing mechanical ventilation. Each patient underwent an incremental/decremental PEEP trial that included five consecutive phases: PEEP 5 and 10 cmH2O, recruitment maneuver + PEEP 15 cmH2O, then PEEP 10 and 5 cmH2O again. We measured, at the end of each phase, recruitment from previous PEEP using the P-V curve method, and changes in DSS were continuously monitored by EIT.ResultsPEEP changes induced alveolar recruitment as assessed by the P-V curve method and changes in the amount of DSS (p < 0.001). Recruited volume measured by the P-V curves significantly correlated with the change in DSS (rs = 0.734, p < 0.001). Regional compliance of the dependent lung increased significantly with rising PEEP (median PEEP 5 cmH2O = 11.9 [IQR 10.4–16.7] ml/cmH2O, PEEP 15 cmH2O = 19.1 [14.2–21.3] ml/cmH2O; p < 0.001), whereas regional compliance of the nondependent lung decreased from PEEP 5 cmH2O to PEEP 15 cmH2O (PEEP 5 cmH2O = 25.3 [21.3–30.4] ml/cmH2O, PEEP 15 cmH2O = 20.0 [16.6–22.8] ml/cmH2O; p <0.001). By increasing the PEEP level, the center of ventilation moved toward the dependent lung, returning to the nondependent lung during the decremental PEEP steps.ConclusionsThe variation of DSSs dynamically measured by EIT correlates well with lung recruitment measured using the P-V curve technique. EIT might provide useful information to titrate personalized PEEP.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02907840. Registered on 20 September 2016.

First Real-Time Visualization of a Spontaneous Pneumothorax Developing in a Preterm Lamb Using Electrical Impedance Tomography

Despite the increased use of noninvasive respiratory support, pneumothoraces remain a significant risk for preterm infants. Early detection and subsequent intervention are essential to minimize the risk for associated mortality and morbidity (1). Clinical symptoms are often nonspecific and vary from sudden to delayed presentation (2). The lack of rapid real-time bedside imaging remains a limiting factor in detection, localization, and management. Current diagnostic tools such as transillumination, ultrasound, or chest X-ray are not very specific and are only used after the occurrence of clinical symptoms (2, 3). During the last decade, electrical impedance tomography (EIT) has developed as a potential bedside monitoring tool (4, 5). In animal models of surgically created artificial air leaks, EIT has been shown to detect pleural air volumes of 10–20 ml, whereas clinical signs of a pneumothorax only developed at an extrapleural air volume of 100 ml or more (6, 7). Regional reductions in tidal ventilation have been reported in a preterm infant and an adult on EIT recordings made after an air leak had developed and been diagnosed (8, 9). However, to date, no real-time EIT recording starting before the onset of a spontaneous unintentional pneumothorax has been published. This letter describes for the first time to our knowledge the evolution of a left-sided pneumothorax in a preterm lamb receiving high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV).

Horses Auto-Recruit Their Lungs by Inspiratory Breath Holding Following Recovery from General Anaesthesia

This study evaluated the breathing pattern and distribution of ventilation in horses prior to and following recovery from general anaesthesia using electrical impedance tomography (EIT). Six horses were anaesthetised for 6 hours in dorsal recumbency. Arterial blood gas and EIT measurements were performed 24 hours before (baseline) and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 hours after horses stood following anaesthesia. At each time point 4 representative spontaneous breaths were analysed. The percentage of the total breath length during which impedance remained greater than 50% of the maximum inspiratory impedance change (breath holding), the fraction of total tidal ventilation within each of four stacked regions of interest (ROI) (distribution of ventilation) and the filling time and inflation period of seven ROI evenly distributed over the dorso-ventral height of the lungs were calculated. Mixed effects multi-linear regression and linear regression were used and significance was set at p<0.05. All horses demonstrated inspiratory breath holding until 5 hours after standing. No change from baseline was seen for the distribution of ventilation during inspiration. Filling time and inflation period were more rapid and shorter in ventral and slower and longer in most dorsal ROI compared to baseline, respectively. In a mixed effects multi-linear regression, breath holding was significantly correlated with PaCO2 in both the univariate and multivariate regression. Following recovery from anaesthesia, horses showed inspiratory breath holding during which gas redistributed from ventral into dorsal regions of the lungs. This suggests auto-recruitment of lung tissue which would have been dependent and likely atelectic during anaesthesia.

Evaluation of reconstruction parameters of electrical impedance tomography on aorta detection during saline bolus injection

Abstract An accurate detection of anatomical structures in electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is still at an early stage. Aorta detection in EIT is of special interest, since it would favor non-invasive assessment of hemodynamic processes in the body. Here, diverse EIT reconstruction parameters of the GREIT algorithm were systematically evaluated to detect the aorta after saline bolus injection in apnea. True aorta position and size were taken from computed tomography (CT). A comparison with CT showed that the smallest error for aorta displacement was attained for noise figure nf = 0.7, weighting radius rw = 0.15, and target size ts = 0.01. The spatial extension of the aorta was most precise for nf = 0.7, rw = 0.25, and ts = 0.07. Detection accuracy (F1-score) was highest with nf = 0.6, rw = 0.15, and ts = 0.04. This work provides algorithm-related evidence for potentially accurate aorta detection in EIT after injection of a saline bolus.

Time to lung aeration during a sustained inflation at birth is influenced by gestation in lambs

BackgroundCurrent sustained lung inflation (SI) approaches use uniform pressures and durations. We hypothesized that gestational-age-related mechanical and developmental differences would affect the time required to achieve optimal lung aeration, and resultant lung volumes, during SI delivery at birth in lambs.Methods49 lambs, in five cohorts between 118 and 139 days of gestation (term 142 d), received a standardized 40 cmH2O SI, which was delivered until 10 s after lung volume stability (optimal aeration) was visualized on real-time electrical impedance tomography (EIT), or to a maximum duration of 180 s. Time to stable lung aeration (Tstable) within the whole lung, gravity-dependent, and non-gravity-dependent regions, was determined from EIT recordings.ResultsTstable was inversely related to gestation (P<0.0001, Kruskal–Wallis test), with the median (range) being 229 (85,306) s and 72 (50,162) s in the 118-d and 139-d cohorts, respectively. Lung volume at Tstable increased with gestation from a mean (SD) of 20 (17) ml/kg at 118 d to 56 (13) ml/kg at 139 d (P=0.002, one-way ANOVA). There were no gravity-dependent regional differences in Tstable or aeration.ConclusionsThe trajectory of aeration during an SI at birth is influenced by gestational age in lambs. An understanding of this may assist in developing SI protocols that optimize lung aeration for all infants.

Assessment of silent spaces at different PEEP levels by electrical impedance tomography in severe COPD

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a novel method to monitor regional lung function. For this purpose, 32 surface electrodes are placed around the human thorax. Weak alternating currents are applied via two of these electrodes and the resulting potentials are measured at the remaining electrodes. From the measured voltages, real-time images are calculated which show the distribution of electrical impedance within the body representing functions rather than structures. Using EIT these lungs can be analysed on a regional basis with respect to the following risk factors: collapse, at risk of becoming atelectatic or overdistension. Identifying these lung areas of particular clinical relevance by EIT may help to find the best individual PEEP level for each patient.

Expiratory time constants by electrical impedance tomography in hypoxemic and hypercapnic acute lung failure - a feasibility study

During relaxed breathing expiration can be compared to a RC-circuit with R being the airway resistance, C the respiratory system compliance and τ = R∙C the expiratory time constant. For the adult respiratory system, the normal τ is around 0.8 s. Different lung pathologies have different time constants. Two common disease types are the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). ARDS is characterized by stiff or noncompliant lungs with low compliance and normal or lower resistance which results in shorter τ. COPD is characterized by impaired airflow or high airways resistance and high compliance which results higher τ. τ reveals information about respiratory mechanics and the time required for the lungs to empty. Traditional pulmonary function tests provide global information only. EIT is a non-invasive real-time imaging technology which determines changes of lung volumes on a regional basis assuming that local impedance changes are proportional to local changes in lung volume. Pikkemaat [1] introduced the method to calculate regional τ, what we improved and applied in 10 patients.

Optimized breath detection algorithm in electrical impedance tomography

OBJECTIVE This paper defines a method for optimizing the breath delineation algorithms used in electrical impedance tomography (EIT). In lung EIT the identification of the breath phases is central for generating tidal impedance variation images, subsequent data analysis and clinical evaluation. The optimisation of these algorithms is particularly important in neonatal care since the existing breath detectors developed for adults may give insufficient reliability in neonates due to their very irregular breathing pattern. APPROACH Our approach is generic in the sense that it relies on the definition of a gold standard and the associated definition of detector sensitivity and specificity, an optimisation criterion and a set of detector parameters to be investigated. The gold standard has been defined by 11 clinicians with previous experience with EIT and the performance of our approach is described and validated using a neonatal EIT dataset acquired within the EU-funded CRADL project. MAIN RESULTS Three different algorithms are proposed that improve the breath detector performance by adding conditions on (1) maximum tidal breath rate obtained from zero-crossings of the EIT breathing signal, (2) minimum tidal impedance amplitude and (3) minimum tidal breath rate obtained from time-frequency analysis. As a baseline a zero-crossing algorithm has been used with some default parameters based on the Swisstom EIT device. SIGNIFICANCE Based on the gold standard, the most crucial parameters of the proposed algorithms are optimised by using a simple exhaustive search and a weighted metric defined in connection with the receiver operating characterics. This provides a practical way to achieve any desirable trade-off between the sensitivity and the specificity of the detectors.

Detection of thoracic vascular structures by electrical impedance tomography: a systematic assessment of prominence peak analysis of impedance changes

OBJECTIVE Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a non-invasive and radiation-free bedside monitoring technology, primarily used to monitor lung function. First experimental data shows that the descending aorta can be detected at different thoracic heights and might allow the assessment of central hemodynamics, i.e. stroke volume and pulse transit time. APPROACH First, the feasibility of localizing small non-conductive objects within a saline phantom model was evaluated. Second, this result was utilized for the detection of the aorta by EIT in ten anesthetized pigs with comparison to thoracic computer tomography (CT). Two EIT belts were placed at different thoracic positions and a bolus of hypertonic saline (10 ml, 20%) was administered into the ascending aorta while EIT data were recorded. EIT images were reconstructed using the GREIT model, based on the individuals thoracic contours. The resulting EIT images were analyzed pixel by pixel to identify the aortic pixel, in which the bolus caused the highest transient impedance peak in time. MAIN RESULTS In the phantom, small objects could be located at each position with a maximal deviation of 0.71 cm. In vivo, no significant differences between the aorta position measured by EIT and the anatomical aorta location were obtained for both measurement planes if the search was restricted to the dorsal thoracic region of interest (ROIs). SIGNIFICANCE It is possible to detect the descending aorta at different thoracic levels by EIT using an intra-aortic bolus of hypertonic saline. No significant differences in the position of the descending aorta on EIT images compared to CT images were obtained for both EIT belts.

Clinical performance of a novel textile interface for neonatal chest electrical impedance tomography

OBJECTIVE Critically ill neonates and infants might particularly benefit from continuous chest electrical impedance tomography (EIT) monitoring at the bedside. In this study a textile 32-electrode interface for neonatal EIT examination has been developed and tested to validate its clinical performance. The objectives were to assess ease of use in a clinical setting, stability of contact impedance at the electrode-skin interface and possible adverse effects. APPROACH Thirty preterm infants (gestational age: 30.3  ±  3.9 week (mean  ±  SD), postnatal age: 13.8  ±  28.2 d, body weight at inclusion: 1727  ±  869 g) were included in this multicentre study. The electrode-skin contact impedances were measured continuously for up to 3 d and analysed during the initial 20-min phase after fastening the belt and during a 10 h measurement interval without any clinical interventions. The skin condition was assessed by attending clinicians. MAIN RESULTS Our findings imply that the textile electrode interface is suitable for long-term neonatal chest EIT imaging. It does not cause any distress for the preterm infants or discomfort. Stable contact impedance of about 300 Ohm was observed immediately after fastening the electrode belt and during the subsequent 20 min period. A slight increase in contact impedance was observed over time. Tidal variation of contact impedance was less than 5 Ohm. SIGNIFICANCE The availability of a textile 32-electrode belt for neonatal EIT imaging with simple, fast, accurate and reproducible placement on the chest strengthens the potential of EIT to be used for regional lung monitoring in critically ill neonates and infants.