Evaluation of applied potential tomography: a clinician's view.

There are several imaging techniques available to the clinician today. The clinical evaluation of a new method such as applied potential tomography (APT) raises a number of questions and these are reviewed in this paper. In particular, the advantages of APT over other methods are stressed. It is considered to be harmless both to the patient and the clinical staff, it is easy to apply and there is no discomfort to the patient during the imaging procedure. The main drawback of this new and inexpensive imaging method appears to be its low resolution. Several clinical applications of APT have already been investigated and others are anticipated in this paper. Each application is reviewed in some detail and the value of dynamic imaging is emphasised in several cases. The most promising clinical application of APT so far has been the monitoring of gastric emptying.