Visualizing Regional Lung Ventilation in Patients With Postacute-COVID-19

There is a lack of data of spontaneous breathing patients with post-COVID-19 syndrome (PCS) examined by Electrical impedance tomography (EIT). We compare 100 patients with PCS with 50 healthy probands.

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Key information

Conditions

Ventilatory Defect COVID-19 Chronic Disease Coronaviridae Infections Coronavirus Infections Disease Attributes Electric Impedance Tomography Infections Lung Diseases Nidovirales Infections Pathologic Processes Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms Pneumonia Pneumonia, Viral Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome Post-COVID-19 Syndrome Post-Infectious Disorders RNA Virus Infections Respiratory Tract Diseases Respiratory Tract Infections Virus Diseases

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Observational

Primary location

Jena university hospital

Jena, Thuringia, 07747, Germany

About this study

When treating patients with dyspnoea, conventional diagnostic tools (computed tomography, spirometry, body plethysmography) often fail to detect pathological changes, making it difficult for the treating physician to choose an appropriate therapeutic approach. Therefore, it would be desirable to have an examination method that reveals the pulmonary changes in postacute Corona-Virus-Disease-2019 (COVID-19) syndrome (PCS) patients that remain hidden from other diagnostic procedures.

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a non-invasive and radiation-free imaging technique that can show the regional ventilation of the lungs almost "in real-time" based on the changes in the electrical impedance of the thorax during inspiration and expiration. This method is based on the observation that the electrical conductivities of biological tissues vary considerably depending on their nature and functional state. Clinical questions in which the inhomogeneity of lung ventilation is to be analysed (e.g., under- or overinflation of individual lung areas, lung collapse, etc.) can be investigated particularly well with EIT since intrathoracic impedance changes correlate strongly with changes in regional lung ventilation.

Up to now, EIT has mainly been used as a monitoring method in intensive care medicine to adapt ventilation settings and other therapeutic measures to the individual needs of patients. In this field, the method has proven useful for obtaining an overview of the distribution of a respiratory volume in a transverse EIT slice, comparing different lung regions, identifying inhomogeneities and assessing regional ventilation during spontaneous breathing.

The aim of this case-control study is to use EIT data obtained during routine examinations of post-COVID patients to analyse whether patients with PCS show more distinct lung alterations than the control group. Maybe these lung alterations correlate with dyspnea most patients report subjectively.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

for control group: no current lung diseases, over 18 years old
for patients with postacute COVID-19 syndrome: over 18 years, positive SARS-CoV-2-PCR

Exclusion criteria

heart pacemaker
epilepsy
BMI over 50

Treatment and study plan

Primary outcomes

pathogenic changes in regional lung ventilation

Time frame: until July 2022

pathogenic changes in regional lung ventilation considered

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Jan-Christoph Lewejohann

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Visualisation of Changes in Regional Ventilation in Dyspnoeic Postacute COVID-19 Patients: A Case-control Study Using Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT)

Acronym: ViReVentPoCov

Important dates

Study start: 2022
Primary completion: 2023
Study completion: 2025
First posted: Jul 1, 2022
Registry last updated: Sep 25, 2025

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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