Title: Diagnosis of elderly pneumonia patients using a parametric electrical impedance tomography system – a preliminary study

Authors: M. Arad, A. Adunsky, S. Zlochiver, S. Abboud, T. Davidson

Addresses: Department of Geriatric Medicine and Rehabilitation, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel; Tel-Hashomer and Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel. ' Department of Geriatric Medicine and Rehabilitation, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel; Tel-Hashomer and Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel. ' Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel. ' Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel. ' Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel; Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel

Abstract: The early diagnosis and monitoring of pneumonia in the elderly patients is essential for decreasing mortality and avoiding disease deterioration. In this work we examined the feasibility of a novel bioimpedance system to diagnose this common respiratory disease. Nine diseased and 12 control patients were measured for the left and right lung resistivity using a parametric electrical impedance tomography (p-EIT) algorithm. A statistically significant difference in the average lung resistivity between the two groups was found (913 ± 211 vs. 1,141 ± 166 Ω cm, for the pneumonia and control groups, respectively), demonstrating the classification capabilities of the technique. A clear correspondence between the lungs with the lower resistivity to the side of pneumonia was also demonstrated. We conclude that the bioimpedance measurement technique, together with the principles of impedance tomography as manifested in our p-EIT system, are a valid modality for pneumonia diagnosis in the elderly population.

Keywords: parametric EIT; pneumonia diagnosis; elderly population; bioimpedance measurement; elderly patients; pneumonia patients; electrical impedance tomography; average lung resistivity; old people.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMEI.2010.036307

International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, 2010 Vol.2 No.4, pp.355 - 363

Published online: 01 Nov 2010 *

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