Electrical impedance tomography: functional lung imaging on its way to clinical practice?

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) has the potential to become a bedside tool for monitoring and guiding ventilator therapy as well as tracking the development of chronic lung diseases. This review article summarizes recent publications (from 2011) dealing with the applications of pulmonary EIT. Original papers on EIT lung imaging in clinical settings are analyzed and divided into several categories according to the lung pathology of the study subjects. Studies on children and infants are presented separately from studies on adult patients. Information on the study objectives and main results, the number of studied patients, the performed ventilatory maneuvers or interventions and the analyzed EIT information is given. Limitations that hinder EIT to become a routinely used tool in a clinical setting are also discussed.