Rationale: Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) allows instantaneous and continuous visualization of regional ventilation and changes in end-expiratory lung volume at the bedside. There is particular interest in using EIT for monitoring in critically ill neonates and young children with respiratory failure. Previous studies have focused only on short-term monitoring in small populations. The feasibility and safety of prolonged monitoring with EIT in neonates and young children have not been demonstrated yet.

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility and safety of long-term EIT monitoring in a routine clinical setting and to describe changes in ventilation distribution and homogeneity over time and with positioning in a multicenter cohort of neonates and young children with respiratory failure.

Methods: At four European University hospitals, we conducted an observational study (NCT02962505) on 200 patients with postmenstrual ages (PMA) between 25 weeks and 36 months, at risk for or suffering from respiratory failure. Continuous EIT data were obtained using a novel textile 32-electrode interface and recorded at 48 images/s for up to 72 hours. Clinicians were blinded to EIT images during the recording. EIT parameters and the effects of body position on ventilation distribution were analyzed offline.

Results: The average duration of FAT measurements was 53 +/- 20 hours. Skin contact impedance was sufficient to allow image reconstruction for valid ventilation analysis during a median of 92% (interquartile range, 77-98%) of examination time. EIT examinations were well tolerated, with minor skin irritations (temporary redness or imprint) occurring in 10% of patients and no moderate or severe adverse events. Higher ventilation amplitude was found in the dorsal and right lung areas when compared with the ventral and left regions, respectively. Prone positioning resulted in an increase in the ventilation-related EIT signal in the dorsal hemithorax, indicating increased ventilation of the dorsal lung areas. Lateral positioning led to a redistribution of ventilation toward the dependent lung in preterm infants and to the nondependent lung in patients with PMA > 37 weeks.

Conclusions: EIT allows continuous long-term monitoring of regional lung function in neonates and young children for up to 72 hours with minimal adverse effects. Our study confirmed the presence of posture-dependent changes in ventilation distribution and their dependency on PMA in a large patient cohort.

Classical homogenization theory based on the Hashin–Shtrikman coated ellipsoids is used to model the changes in the complex valued conductivity (or admittivity) of a lung during tidal breathing. Here, the lung is modeled as a two-phase composite material where the alveolar air-filling corresponds to the inclusion phase. The theory predicts a linear relationship between the real and the imaginary parts of the change in the complex valued conductivity of a lung during tidal breathing, and where the loss cotangent of the change is approximately the same as of the effective background conductivity and hence easy to estimate. The theory is illustrated with numerical examples based on realistic parameter values and frequency ranges used with electrical impedance tomography (EIT). The theory may be potentially useful for imaging and clinical evaluations in connection with lung EIT for respiratory management and control.

Objective: This paper defines a method for optimizing the breath delineation algorithms used in Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT). In lung EIT the identification of the breath phases is central for generating tidal impedance variation images, subsequent data analysis and clinical evaluation. The optimisation of these algorithms is particularly important in neonatal care since the existing breath detectors developed for adults may give insufficient reliability in neonates due to their very irregular breathing pattern. Approach: Our approach is generic in the sense that it relies on the definition of a gold standard and the associated definition of detector sensitivity and specificity, an optimisation criterion and a set of detector parameters to be investigated. The gold standard has been defined by 11 clinicians with previous experience with EIT and the performance of our approach is described and validated using a neonatal EIT dataset acquired within the EU-funded CRADL project. Main results: Three different algorithms are proposed that are improving the breath detector performance by adding conditions on 1) maximum tidal breath rate obtained from zero-crossings of the EIT breathing signal, 2) minimum tidal impedance amplitude and 3) minimum tidal breath rate obtained from Time-Frequency (TF) analysis. As a baseline the zero crossing algorithm has been used with some default parameters based on the Swisstom EIT device. Significance: Based on the gold standard, the most crucial parameters of the proposed algorithms are optimised by using a simple exhaustive search and a weighted metric defined in connection with the Receiver Operating Characterics (ROC). This provides a practical way to achieve any desirable trade-off between the sensitivity and the specificity of the detectors.

We present a dual-directional illumination digital holographic method to increase height range measurement with a reduced phase ambiguity. Small change in the illumination angle of incident introduce phase difference between the recorded complex fields. We decrease relative phase difference between the recorded complex field 279 and 139 times by changing the angle of incident 0.5° and 1°, respectively. A two cent Euro coin edge groove is used to measure the shape. The groove depth is measured as ≈300μm . Further, numerical re-focusing and analysis of speckle displacements in two different planes are used to measure the depth without a use of phase unwrapping process.

The objective of this paper is to report our investigation demonstrating that the phase angle information of complex impedance could be a simple indicator of a breath cycle in chest Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT). The study used clinical neonatal EIT data. The results show that measurement of the phase angle from complex EIT data can be used as a complementary information for improving the conventional breath detection algorithms.

Spectral analysis based on short-time Fourier transform (STFT) using Kaiser window is proposed to examine the frequency components of neonates EIT data. In this way, a simultaneous spatial-time-frequency analysis is achieved.

The thorax models for pre-term babies are developed based on the CT scans from new-borns and their effect on image reconstruction is evaluated in comparison with other available models.

The objective of this paper is to describe a full-field deformation measurement method based on 3D speckle displacements. The deformation is evaluated from the slope of the speckle displacement function that connects the different reconstruction planes. For our experiment, a symmetrical arrangement with four illuminations parallel to the planes (x,z)" role="presentation" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-size: 12.88px; line-height: normal; word-spacing: normal; word-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; border: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; position: relative;">(𝑥,𝑧)(x,z) and (y,z)" role="presentation" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-size: 12.88px; line-height: normal; word-spacing: normal; word-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; border: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; position: relative;">(𝑦,𝑧)(y,z) was used. Four sets of speckle patterns were sequentially recorded by illuminating an object from the four directions, respectively. A single camera is used to record the holograms before and after deformations. Digital speckle photography is then used to calculate relative speckle displacements in each direction between two numerically propagated planes. The 3D speckle displacements vector is calculated as a combination of the speckle displacements from the holograms recorded in each illumination direction. Using the speckle displacements, problems associated with rigid body movements and phase wrapping are avoided. In our experiment, the procedure is shown to give the theoretical accuracy of 0.17 pixels yielding the accuracy of 2×10−3" role="presentation" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-size: 12.88px; line-height: normal; word-spacing: normal; word-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; border: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; position: relative 2×10^-3in the measurement of deformation gradients.

In manufacturing industry there is a high demand for on line quality control to minimize therisk of incorrectly produced objects. Conventional contact measurement methods are usuallyslow and invasive, meaning that they cannot be used for soft materials and for complexshapes without influencing the controlled parts. In contrast, interferometry and digitalholography in combination with computers become faster, more reliable and highly accurateas an alternative non-contact technique for industrial shape evaluation. For example in digitalholography, access to the complex wave field and the possibility to numerically reconstructholograms in different planes introduce a new degree of flexibility to optical metrology. Withdigital holography high resolution and precise three dimensional (3D) images of themanufactured parts can be generated. This technique can also be used to capture data in asingle exposure, which is important when doing measurements in a disturbed environment.

The aim of this thesis is devoted to the theoretical and experimental development of shapeand deformation measurements. To perform online process control of free-formmanufactured objects, the measured shape is compared with the CAD-model to obtaindeviations. To do this, a new technique to measure surface gradients and shape based onsingle-shot multiplexed dual-wavelength digital holography and image correlation of speckledisplacements is demonstrated. Based on an analytical relation between phase gradients andspeckle displacements it is shown that an object is retrieved uniquely to shape, position anddeformation without the unwrapping problems that usually appear in dual-wavelengthholography. The method is first demonstrated using continues-wave laser light from twotemperature controlled laser diodes operating at 640 nm. Then a specially designed dual corediode pumped fiber laser that produces pulsed light with wavelengths close to 1030 nm isused. In addition, a Nd:YAG laser with the wavelength of 532 nm is used for 3D deformationmeasurements.

One significant problem when using the dual-wavelength single-shot approach is that phaseambiguities are built in to the system that needs to be corrected. An automatic calibrationscheme is therefore required. The intrinsic flexibility of digital holography gives a possibilityto compensate these aberrations and to remove errors, fully numerically without mechanicalmovements. In this thesis I present a calibration method which allows multiplexed singleshotonline shape evaluation in a disturbed environment. It is shown that phase maps andspeckle displacements can be recovered free of chromatic aberrations. This is the first time that a multiplexed single-shot dual-wavelength calibration is reported by defining a criteria tomake an automatic procedure.

Further, Digital Speckle Photography (DSP) is used for the full field measurement of 3Ddeformations. In order to do 3D deformation measurement, usually multi-cameras andintricate set-up are required. In this thesis I demonstrate the use of only one single camera torecord four sets of speckle patterns recorded by illuminating the object from four differentdirections. In this manner, meanwhile 3D speckle displacement is calculated and used for themeasurement of the 3D deformations, wrapping problems are also avoided. Further, the samescale of speckle images of the surface for all four images is guaranteed. Furthermore, a needfor calibration of the 3D deformation measurement that occurs in the multi-camera methods,is removed.

By the results of the presented work, it is experimentally verified that the multiplexed singleshotdual wavelength digital holography and numerically generated speckle images can beused together with digital speckle correlation to retrieve and evaluate the object shape. Usingmultidirectional illumination, the 3D deformation measurements can also be obtained. Theproposed method is robust to large phase gradients and large movements within the intensitypatterns. The advantage of the approach is that, using speckle displacements, shape anddeformation measurements can be performed even though the synthetic wavelength is out ofthe dynamic range of the object deformation and/or height variation.

In this paper, we present a tailored multiwavelength Yb-fiber laser source in the 1.03 μm spectral region for spatially multiplexed digital holographic acquisitions. The wavelengths with bandwidths below 0.1 nm were spectrally separated by approximately 1 nm by employing fiber Bragg gratings for spectral control. As a proof of concept, the shape of a cylindrically shaped object with a diameter of 48 mm was measured. The holographic acquisition was performed in single-shot dual-wavelength mode with a synthetic wavelength of 1.1 mm, and the accuracy was estimated to be 3% of the synthetic wavelength.