Non-iterative reconstruction of respiratory and cardiac activity in infants from electrical impedance tomography data

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a medical imaging technique in which measurements of voltage arising from current applied on electrodes placed on the surface of the body are used to form dynamic images of changes in conductivity and susceptivity due to the flow of blood and air in the thorax. It is particularly suitable for imaging infants since it does not impart ionizing radiation. In this work, the D-bar method for complex admittivities is applied to human subject data with optimal current patterns synthesized to maximize distinguishability between two respiratory or two cardiac states. This facilitates fast, direct reconstructions of ventilation and perfusion in infants with chronic lung disease.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Frontiers of applied inverse problems in science and engineering’.