Electrical Impedance Tomography for Quantification of Pulmonary Edema in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Patients

Evaluation of pulmonary edema is a key factor in monitoring and guidance of therapy in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) patients. To date, methods available at the bedside for estimating the physiologic correlate of pulmonary edema, extravascular lung water(EVLW), often are unreliable or require invasive measurements. The purpose of the this study is to develop a novel approach to reliably assess extravascular lung water by electrical impedance tomography(EIT).