Determination of stroke volume by means of electrical impedance tomography.

ECG-gated electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a non-invasive imaging technique, developed to monitor blood volume changes. This study is the first in comparing this non-invasive technique in measuring stroke volume with established techniques. The objective of this study was to validate EIT variables derived from the EIT images with paired obtained stroke volume measurements by thermodilution and MRI. After right cardiac catheterization, EIT measurements were performed in 25 patients. Regression analysis was used to analyse the relation between the EIT results and stroke volume determined by thermodilution. From the regression line an equation was derived to estimate stroke volume (in ml) by EIT. A strong correlation was found between EIT and stroke volume measured by the thermodilution method (r = 0.86). In a group of 11 healthy subjects this equation was validated to MRI. The mean and standard deviation of the difference between EIT and MRI was 0.7 ml and 5.4 ml respectively. These data indicate that EIT is a valid and reproducible method for the assessment of stroke volume.