Trial reportThe clinical respiratory journal2025
Electrical Impedance Tomography-Guided Airway Clearance in Elderly Patients With Severe Pneumonia: A Prospective Study.
Trial report in The clinical respiratory journal, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Adjunctive Short-Wave Diathermy to High-Frequency Chest Wall Oscillation for Acute Exacerbation of COPD: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Canadian respiratory journal · 2026Trial
- Electrical Impedance Tomography-Guided Airway Clearance in Elderly Patients With Severe Pneumonia: A Prospective Study.The clinical respiratory journal · 2025Trial
- Thoracic electrical impedance tomography from technological promise to clinical reality: the Chinese experience.Journal of thoracic disease · 2026Review
- Efficacy and safety of airway clearance techniques in Chinese adult patients with pneumonia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Mechanisms and clinical research progress of IL-6-mediated crosstalk between the alveolar microenvironment and the immune system in patients with severe pneumonia undergoing mechanical ventilation.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundElderly patients are prone to secretion retention and exacerbated lung infections due to weakened respiratory muscle strength and reduced ability to cough and expectorate. Airway clearance techniques (ACTs) can help to clear airway secretions, but objective bedside assessment of secretion clearance efficacy is lacking. Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) can dynamically monitor lung ventilation and provide a basis for clinical decision-making.
methodsThis study was a prospective randomized controlled trial that included 50 elderly patients with severe pneumonia, who were randomized into EIT and non-EIT groups. The EIT group received personalized ACTs guided by real-time EIT imaging with dynamic adjustment of posture, percussion intensity, and active circulatory breathing technique (ACBT) frequency, whereas the non-EIT group received fixed-schedule ACTs (postural drainage every 2 h + percussion/vibration twice daily) without EIT feedback. The main observation indices included Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score (CPIS), respiratory mechanics indices, blood gas analysis indices, and extubation success rate.
resultsThe EIT group showed significantly lower CPIS scores (p = 0.0137 on Day 7), higher dynamic compliance (p = 0.0193), lower airway resistance (p = 0.0039), lower peak airway pressure (p = 0.0288), and higher oxygenation index (p = 0.0143 on Day 5 and p = 0.0005 on Day 7) than the non-EIT group. The extubation success rate was significantly higher in the EIT group (88% vs. 56%, p = 0.0255). Additionally, the EIT group demonstrated progressive improvements in ventilation in specific regions (D7 vs. D1: p = 0.0004 for region of interest [ROI]3; p = 0.0059 for ROI4) and a significant decrease in the global inhomogeneity index at D7 (D7 vs. D1: p = 0.0025).
conclusionEIT-guided ACT is safe and enhances treatment efficacy by significantly improving respiratory function and extubation success rate in elderly patients with severe pneumonia.
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