Patent ID: 8321007
Filing Date: 2012-11-27
Classification: A61B,A61M

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for determining functional lung characteristics of a patient, the apparatus comprising: an electrical impedance tomography (EIT) imaging device with an electrode plane for recording a impedance distribution within a plane of a thorax of the patient, the EIT imaging device including a control and analysis unit for performing an impedance measurement and deriving the impedance distribution within the plane of the thorax (EIT image), the control and analysis unit automatically performing the steps as follows: determining a global impedance change, defined as an impedance change with respect to an earlier measured reference impedance distribution integrated over the electrode plane, and recording a global impedance change curve as a function of time; performing breath detection in order to identify one or more breathing cycles; subdividing each of said one or more breathing cycles to define a plurality of intratidal intervals; subdividing an EIT image from each of said intratidal intervals into a plurality of regions of interest and calculating for each region of interest a ratio of an integrated impedance change within one of said regions of interest to the global impedance change of said EIT image; and for each intratidal interval presenting indications of the ratio determined for each of the regions of interest to provide an intratidal gas distribution representation for each of said intratidal intervals.