A pilot study of contrast-enhanced electrical impedance tomography for real-time imaging of cerebral perfusion.

Background: Real-time detection of cerebral blood perfusion can prevent adverse reactions, such as cerebral infarction and neuronal apoptosis. Our previous clinical trial have shown that the infusion of therapeutic fluid can significantly change the impedance distribution in the brain. However, whether this alteration implicates the cerebral blood perfusion remains unclear. To explore the feasibility of monitoring cerebral blood perfusion, the present pilot study established a novel cerebral contrast-enhanced electrical impedance tomography (C-EIT) technique. Materials and methods: Rabbits were randomly divided into two groups: the internal carotid artery non-occlusion (ICAN) and internal carotid artery occlusion (ICAO) groups. Both of groups were injected with glucose, an electrical impedance-enhanced contrast agent, through the right internal carotid artery under EIT monitoring. The C-EIT reconstruction images of the rabbits brain were analyzed according to the collected raw data. The paired and independent Results: According to the reconstructed images, the impedance value of the left cerebral hemisphere in the ICAN group did not change significantly, whereas the impedance value of the right cerebral hemisphere gradually increased, reaching a peak at approximately 10 s followed by gradually decreased. In the ICAO group, the impedance values of both cerebral hemispheres increased gradually and then began to decrease after reaching the peak value. According to the paired Conclusion: The cerebral C-EIT proposed in this pilot study can reflect cerebral blood perfusion. This method has potential in various applications in the brain in the future, including disease progression monitoring, collateral circulation judgment, tumor-specific detection, and brain function research.