Bedside Breath-Wise Visualization of Bronchospasm by Electrical Impedance Tomography Could Improve Perioperative Patient Safety: A Case Report

A A Case Rep. 2017 Jun 15;8(12):316-319. doi: 10.1213/XAA.0000000000000499.

Abstract

Bronchospasm appears in up to 4% of patients with obstructive lung disease or respiratory infection undergoing general anesthesia. Clinical examination alone may miss bronchospasm. As a consequence, subsequent (mis)treatment and ventilator settings could lead to pulmonary hyperinflation, hypoxia, hypercapnia, hypotension, patient-ventilator asynchrony, volutrauma, or barotrauma. Electrical impedance tomography (EIT), a new noninvasive technique, can potentially identify bronchospasms by determining regional expiratory time constants (τ) for each one of the pixels of a functional EIT image. We present the first clinical case that highlights the potential of breath-wise EIT-based τ images of the lung to quickly identify bronchospasm at the bedside, which could improve perioperative patient management and safety.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Bronchial Spasm / diagnostic imaging*
  • Bronchial Spasm / physiopathology
  • Bronchial Spasm / therapy
  • Bronchoconstriction*
  • Electric Impedance
  • Exhalation*
  • Humans
  • Lung / diagnostic imaging*
  • Lung / physiopathology
  • Male
  • Monitoring, Physiologic / methods*
  • Point-of-Care Testing*
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted
  • Respiration, Artificial
  • Time Factors
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed / methods*