• Inéz Frerichs, José Hinz, Peter Herrmann, Gerald Weisser, Günter Hahn, Taras Dudykevych, Michael Quintel, and Gerhard Hellige.
• Department of Anesthesiological Research, Center of Anesthesiology, Emergency and Intensive Care Medicine, University of Göttingen, D-37075 Göttingen, Germany. isipink@gwdg.de
• J. Appl. Physiol. 2002 Aug 1; 93 (2): 660-6.

AbstractThe aim of the study was to validate the ability of electrical impedance tomography (EIT) to detect local changes in air content, resulting from modified ventilator settings, by comparing EIT findings with electron beam computed tomography (EBCT) scans obtained under identical steady-state conditions. The experiments were carried out on six anesthetized supine pigs ventilated with five tidal volumes (VT) at three positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) levels. The lung air content changes were determined both by EIT (Goe-MF1 system) and EBCT (Imatron C-150XP scanner) in six regions of interest, located in the ventral, middle, and dorsal areas of each lung, with respect to the reference air content at the lowest VT and PEEP, as a change in either local electrical impedance or lung tissue density. An increase in local air content with VT and PEEP was identified by both methods at all regions studied. A good correlation between the changes in lung air content determined by EIT and EBCT was revealed. Mean correlation coefficients in the ventral, middle, and dorsal regions were 0.81, 0.87, and 0.93, respectively. The study confirms that EIT is a suitable, noninvasive method for detecting regional changes in air content and monitoring local effects of artificial ventilation.

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