A review of cardiac functional monitoring based on electrical impedance tomography

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a promising non-invasive imaging technique that provides real-time information about physiological processes, particularly in monitoring cardiac for the early detection and management of cardiovascular diseases. The hemodynamic parameter detected by EIT depend on the electrode configuration, data acquisition system specification, signal processing, dynamic image reconstruction methods, and post-processing for clinical output. To meet the market need, this study reviews the EIT system development for cardiac imaging. Papers related publications were extracted from the three electronic academic research databases web of science core collection, ScienceDirect, and PUBMED Central to August 2025. There are 6 review papers, while 85 related papers that pass with the quality assessments. Main EIT studies have been published that considered on the lung imaging accuracy only without concerning the cardiac impedance effect. This review consolidates critical advancements in Cardiac-EIT, highlighting progress in electrode design, hardware, signal processing, and reconstruction algorithms. While significant potential exists for non-invasive hemodynamic monitoring, further research in Cardiac-EIT is crucial for clinical adoption, focusing on (a) standardizing robust, anatomy-agnostic electrode protocols, (b) co-designing high-speed, high-fidelity acquisition systems, (c) real-time signal separation matching gold-standard apnea performance, (d) adaptive reconstruction algorithms balancing speed and accuracy, (e) clinical validation of V / Q mapping to transition to diagnostic use.