Assessing Pulmonary Function in ALS using Electrical Impedance Tomography

This study aimed to determine an optimal model involving thoracic electrical impedance tomography (EIT) metrics and patient geometric information to best correlate to standard pulmonary function test (PFT) measures in a cohort of 32 ALS patients and 32 age-matched healthy controls. Thoracic EIT is a non-invasive technology in which an electrode belt chest allows for real-time impedance imaging of respiratory function. The optimal form of the model was determined via a genetic algorithm a novel technique for model generation in EIT applications. Combining multiple metrics yielded optimal r² values of 0.62 and 0.66 for 1- and 2-term regression models optimized. The results appear very promising and further refinement of the technology appears warranted.