Determination of Cardiac Ejection Fraction by Electrical Impedance Tomography - Numerical Experiments and Viability Analysis

Cardiac ejection fraction is a clinically relevant parameter that is highly correlated to the functional status of the heart. Today the non-invasive methods and technology that measure cardiac ejection fraction, such as MRI, CT and echocardiography do not offer a continuous way of monitoring this important parameter. In this work, we numerically evaluate a new method for the continuous estimation of cardiac ejection fraction based on Electrical Impedance Tomography. The proposed technique assumes the, existence of recent Magnetic Resonance (MR) images of the heart to reduce the search space of the inverse problem. Simulations were performed on two-dimensional cardiac MRI images with electric potentials numerically obtained by the solution of the Poisson equation via the Boundary Element Method. Different protocols for current injection were evaluated. Preliminary results are presented and the potentialities and limitations of the proposed technique are discussed.