Method and apparatus for the non-invasive measurement of pulse transit times (PTT)

1. A method for non-invasively monitoring a pulse transit time (PTT) value of a subject, comprising:

providing an electrical impedance tomography (EIT) imaging device adapted to record an EIT image of the subject, the EIT image comprising an impedance signal distribution;

during a predetermined measuring time period, measuring a sequence of temporally discrete EIT images of the subject using the EIT imaging device, each EIT image comprising a plurality of pixels, each pixel representing an impedance value; and

processing the sequence of EIT images to identify at least one region of interest (ROI) comprising a subset of said plurality of EIT pixels;

estimating at least one of a first arterial pressure pulse arrival time (PAT) value and a second PAT value from a variation of impedance values in said sequence of EIT images from said at least one ROI during the predetermined measuring time period;

estimating the other of said first PAT value and said second PAT value;

calculating a PTT value from a difference between the first PAT value and the second PAT value; and

outputting the PTT value.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said determining at least one ROI comprises using one or a combination of the methods comprising:

manual or automated analysis of the sequence of EIT images, or using spatial distribution of energy for the sequence of EIT images at respiratory and/or cardiac frequency bands.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein said determining at least one ROI further comprises a computer tomogram method or an x-ray imaging method.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said at least one ROI comprises a first ROI at a first location of the arterial tree or the heart of the subject, and a second ROI at a second location of the arterial tree or the heart of the subject.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the first location is within a part of the descending aorta and the second location is within a part of the left ventricle.

6. The method according to claim 5 ,

wherein a time-based image is generated by computing a PAT value for each pixel in the sequence of EIT images, and

wherein a ROI corresponding to the heart is identified as the ROI whose pixels depict the lowest PAT values in front of the lungs in the time-based EIT image and a ROI corresponding to the left ventricle comprises a subset of the ROI corresponding to the heart, identified according to anatomical rules.

7. The method according to claim 5 ,

wherein a time-based image is generated by computing a PAT value for each pixel in the sequence of EIT images, and

wherein a ROI corresponding to the descending aorta is identified as pixels in the dorsal thorax behind the lungs depicting the lowest PAT values.

8. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the first location is within a part of the major branch of the pulmonary artery and the second location is within a part of the right ventricle.

9. The method according to claim 8 ,

wherein a time-based image is generated by computing a PAT value for each pixel in the sequence of EIT images, and

wherein the right ventricle is identified as the ROI whose pixels depict the lowest PAT values in the time-based EIT image, and the pulmonary artery is identified as the ROI within the central lung region whose pixels depict the PAT values higher than those of the aorta but lower than those depicting the peripheral lung tissue.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein estimating the second PAT value is performed by using a pulsatile measurement device.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the pulsatile measurement comprises an ECG device and the second PAT value is estimated by using the R-Wave measured by the ECG device.

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the pulsatile measurement device comprises an impedance-cardiographic device, and the second PAT value is estimated by processing impedance-cardiographic signals of the impedance-cardiographic device.

13. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

measuring an arterial path length (APL) value; and

determining a pulse wave velocity (PWV) value as the APL value divided by the PTT value.

14. The method according to claim 13 , wherein said measuring an APL value comprises using one or a combination of the methods comprising:

manual or automatic analysis of images measured from a computer tomogram method or an x-ray imaging method, and

performing at least one morphological measurement of the subject.

15. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the pulsatile measurement device comprises a phonocardiographic device and the second PAT value is estimated by processing phonocardiographic signals of the phonocardiographic device.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium having computer program product and executable code stored therein that, when executed, causes a computer system to perform the method of claim 1 .