Electrical impedance tomography in the evaluation of effectiveness of chest physiotherapy

Introduction: Chest physiotherapy, such as PEP mask (with/without an inspiratory pause), plays a role in respiratory management of Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patients. Aims of this study were: 1) to evaluate the PEP mask efficacy in terms of lung inhomogeneity (GI) and end-expiratory lung volume (ΔEELI) reduction as assessed by Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) changes; 2) to evaluate if an inspiratory pause added to PEP mask trials resulted in a greater lung homogeneity/recruitment. Methods: Thirty-two CF patients were enrolled. EIT recording before, during and post PEP mask (5 cycles: 3 cycles with inspiratory pause followed by 2 cycles without pause or vice versa into two randomized subgroups) were taken. A further analysis was performed by considering the pancreatic status. Results: Taken as a whole, data showed that GI was significantly reduced both during each PEP mask cycle (p Conclusion: In this study we highlighted that EIT can be a valid tool to design chest physiotherapy, evaluate in real time its benefits and to individualize the PEP mask treatment (e.g. in CF patients according to pancreatic status).