Published in:
Open Access 15-06-2023 | Post-COVID Syndrome | Case Report
Visualizing exertional dyspnea in a post-COVID patient using electrical impedance tomography
Published in: Infection | Issue 6/2023
Login to get accessAbstract
Purpose and method
Many post-COVID patients suffer from dyspnea on exertion. To visualize exercise-induced dyspnea, a post-COVID patient and a healthy volunteer underwent an exercise test on a treadmill under stress relevant to everyday life monitored by electrical impedance tomography (EIT).
Results
The lung-healthy volunteer showed an even ventilation distribution throughout the assessment, a large ventilated area, and a butterfly-like lung shape with a convex lung rim. The post-COVID patient showed clear differences in the ventilated area compared to the control subject. During exercise, a constantly changing picture of differently ventilated areas is shown. However, especially the anterior regions were under-ventilated and larger areas were partially absent from ventilation. Overall, uncoordinated breathing and an uneven distribution of ventilation dominated the findings.
Conclusion
EIT is suitable for visualizing disturbed ventilation of the lungs, both at rest and under stress. The potential as a diagnostic tool in dyspnea assessment should be investigated.