Real-Time Imaging and Detection of Intracranial Haemorrhage by Electrical Impedance Tomography in a Piglet Model

Abstract

The aim of this study was to use electrical impedance tomography (EIT) to detect and image acute intracranial haemorrhage (ICH) in an animal model. Blood was infused into the frontal lobe of the brains of anaesthetized piglets and impedance was measured using 16 electrodes placed in a circle on the scalp. The EIT images were constructed using a filtered back-projection algorithm. The mean of all the pixel intensities within a region of interest -the mean resistivity value (MRV) -was used to evaluate the relative impedance changes in the target region. A symmetrical index (SI), reflecting the relative impedance on both sides of the brain, was also calculated. Changes in MRV and SI were associated with the injection of blood, demonstrating that EIT can successfully detect ICH in this animal model. The unique features of EIT may be beneficial for diagnosing ICH early in patients after cranial surgery, thereby reducing the risk of complications and mortality.

Microwave-Based Stroke Diagnosis Making Global Prehospital Thrombolytic Treatment Possible

“…Ultrasonography can be used to identify large vessel occlusions in acute stroke care, [13] but cannot exclude hemorrhagic transformation of the resulting ischemic regions. Impedance tomography has been proposed as a possible technology to detect ICH in an animal model, [14] and impedance spectroscopy has been suggested as a method to detect stroke related brain asymmetries in man, [15]. While less developed in medical diagnostics, microwave propagation in human tissues has an advantage over both impedance and ultrasound via the easy penetration of the human scull.…”

Exploratory Study on the Methodology of Fast Imaging of Unilateral Stroke Lesions by Electrical Impedance Asymmetry in Human Heads

“…Through extensive research, our research group established a dynamic EIT platform for monitoring cerebral impedance and utilized it to dynamically monitor the conditionally controllable progress of stroke in animal models [20, 21]. Given that dynamic EIT requires time-referenced data, it is inapplicable to cases where a single image in time is required or when time-referenced data are unavailable.…”

Performance Evaluation of Five Types of Ag/AgCl Bio-Electrodes for Cerebral Electrical Impedance Tomography

“…Researches about bedside dynamic monitoring using cerebral EIT have been conducted by our group, with major focus on intracranial hemorrhage. 8,30,[32][33][34]41,42 Real-time monitoring on the changes of cerebral impedance can be realized by EIT method, through which the extent of brain damage due to the hemorrhage may be evaluated. 40 Hence, this can provide invaluable and timely information for the diagnosis and treatments of those patients.…”