Epidermal EIT electrode arrays for cardiopulmonary application and fatty liver infiltration

Abstract

This chapter provides a detailed discussion on the tremendously promising imaging modality, electrical impedance tomography (EIT), and its application in noninvasive sensing with epidermal electrode arrays. We start with a fundamental account on the physical principal of EIT based on Maxwell equation. We then present the general mathematical scheme and software implementation for solving the EIT inverse problem. The focus of this chapter is the clinical application of EIT, and two different topics, cardiopulmonary monitoring and fatty liver detection, are discussed in detail. For cardiopulmonary monitoring, we look at the most recent development of using EIT in a variety of situation: mechanical ventilation in ICU, pulmonary perfusion, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and cystic fibrosis (CF). For fatty liver detection, we present an inspiring study for measurement of fat content at multiple scales, from benchtop verification, to animal study, and to human subject testing. We also share our opinions in future directions for these two applications, respectively.