Electrical impedance tomography system: an open access circuit design

BACKGROUND: This paper reports a simple 2-D system for electrical impedance tomography EIT, which works efficiently and is low cost. The system has been developed in the Sharif University of Technology Tehran-Iran (for the author's MSc Project). METHODS: The EIT system consists of a PC in which an I/O card is installed with an external current generator, a multiplexer, a power supply and a phantom with an array of electrodes. The measurement system provides 12-bit accuracy and hence, suitable data acquisition software has been prepared accordingly. The synchronous phase detection method has been implemented for voltage measurement. Different methods of image reconstruction have been used with this instrument to generate electrical conductivity images. RESULTS: The results of simulation and real measurement of the system are presented. The reconstruction programs were written in MATLAB and the data acquisition software in C++. The system has been tested with both static and dynamic mode in a 2-D domain. Better results have been produced in the dynamic mode of operation, due to the cancellation of errors. CONCLUSION: In the spirit of open access publication the design details of this simple EIT system are made available here

The use of charge -charge correlation in impedance measurements: A test of the EPET method

It is well known that biological tissues possess impedance properties that might be useful in medical diagnostics and treatment. Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) images internal electrical properties by using numerical methods to solve Laplace\u27s differential equation. The indirect reconstruction method (IRM), a common method in application, predicts internal electrical property distribution by iteratively computing a forward and inverse solution. This approach reduces the non-linear Laplace\u27s equation into a poorly conditioned series of linear equations, which are solved simultaneously. This method suffers from high computational effort and is susceptible to prediction errors that stem from measurement noise.;As an alternative to Laplace\u27s differential equation, this research applies the quasi-static approximation, Dirichlet boundary conditions and a rectangular shaped domain (with corresponding Green\u27s function for Cartesian coordinates) to solve the integral form of Poisson\u27s equation (Green\u27s 2nd identity). The result is the charge-charge correlation method (CCCM), a well-conditioned relationship between static charge build-up at internal structures and induced domain boundary charge build-up (which corresponds to measured boundary current). The CCCM is applied in a reconstruction technique called Electrical Property Enhanced Tomography (EPET). While related to the existing impedance imaging methods, EPET does not attempt to create the image with the electrical data but rather adds electrical property information to an existing conventional imaging modality (CT or MI) and, in fact, requires the data from the other modality to locate the position of internal structures in the object. Predicted electrical properties are then superimposed over the a priori structural image to yield the electrical property distribution.;To test the feasibility of the CCCM, experiments using agar media placed in a saline bath were performed. The position, size and conductivity of the agar were varied and the CCCM applied to predict the conductivities from external boundary current measurements. Predicted conductivities yielded relative errors less than 10%, results that are equal to or better than the IRM. Additionally, CCCM was able to compute these results with a 104 improvement in speed over the IRM

Detection of breast cancer with electrical impedance mammography

Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) is a medical imaging technique that reconstructs internal electrical conductivity distribution of a body from impedance data that is measured on the body surface, and Electrical Impedance Mammography (EIM) is the technique that applies EIT in breast cancer detection. The use of EIM for breast cancer identification is highly desirable because it is a non-invasive and low-cost imaging technology. EIM has the potential in detecting early stage cancer, however there are still challenges that hindering EIM to be provided as a routine health care system. There are three major groups of obstacles. One is the hardware design, which includes the selection of electronic components, electrode-skin contacting methods, etc. Second is theoretical problems such as electrode configurations, image reconstruction and regularization methods. Third is the development of analysis methods and generation of a cancerous tissue database. Research reported in this thesis strives to understand these problems and aims to provide possible solutions to build a clinical EIM system. The studies are carried out in four parts. First the functionalities of the Sussex Mk4 EIM system have been studied. Sensitivity of the system was investigated to find out the strength and weakness of the system. Then work has been made on image reconstruction and regularization methods in order to enhance the system’s endurance to noise, also to balance the reconstruction conductivity distribution throughout the reconstructed object. Then a novel cancer diagnosis technique was proposed. It was developed based on the electrical property of human breast tissue and the behaviour or systematic noise, to provide repeatable results for each patient. Finally evaluation has been made on previous EIM systems to find out the major problems. Based on sensitivity analysis, an optimal combined electrode configuration has been proposed to improve sensitivity. The system has been developed and produced meaningful clinical images. The work makes significant contributions to society. This novel cancer diagnosis method has high accuracy for cancer identification. The combined electrode configuration has also provided flexibilities in the designing of current driving and voltage receiving patterns, thus sensitivity of the EIM system can be greatly improved

PRZEDZIAŁAMI LINIOWE ITERACYJNE ALGORYTMY REKONSTRUKCJI OBRAZÓW W ELEKTRYCZNEJ TOMOGRAFII POJEMNOŚCIOWEJ

The paper concerns the non-linear algorithms for image reconstruction in electrical capacitance tomography for which Jacobi matrix computation time is very long. The paper presents the idea of an iterative linearization in nonlinear problems, which leads to a reduction in the number of steps calculating Jacobi matrix. The linear Landweber algorithm with sensitivity matrix updating and non-linear Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm with Jacobi matrix updating in selected steps only were presented.Artykuł dotyczy nieliniowych algorytmów rekonstrukcji obrazów w elektrycznej tomografii pojemnościowej, dla których czas wyznaczenia macierzy Jacobiego jest bardzo długi. W pracy przedstawiono ideę iteracyjnej linearyzacji w problemach nieliniowych, która prowadzi do zmniejszenia liczby kroków wyznaczających macierz Jacobiego. Przedstawiono liniowy algorytm Landwebera z uaktualnianiem macierzy wrażliwości oraz algorytm Levenberga-Marquardta z wyznaczaniem macierzy Jacobiego tylko w wybranych krokach

Electrical Impedance Tomography/Spectroscopy (EITS): a Code Division Multiplexed (CDM) approach

Electrical Impedance Tomography and Spectroscopy (EITS) is a noninvasive imaging technique that creates images of cross-sections "tomos" of objects by discriminating them based on their electrical impedance. This thesis investigated and successfully confirmed the use of Code Division Multiplexing (CDM) using Gold codes in Electrical Impedance Tomography and Spectroscopy. The results obtained showed 3.5% and 6.2% errors in determining the position and size of imaged anomalies respectively, with attainable imaging speed of 462 frames/second. These results are better, compared to those reported when using Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) and Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM).This new approach provides a more robust mode of EITS for fast changing dynamic systems by eliminating temporal data inconsistencies. Furthermore, it enables robust use of frequency difference imaging and spectroscopy in EITS by eliminating frequency data inconsistencies. In this method of imaging, electric current patterns are safely injected into the imaged object by a set of electrodes arranged in a single plane on the objects surface, for 2-Dimensional (2D) imaging. For 3-Dimensional (3D) imaging, more electrode planes are used on the objects surface. The injected currents result in measurable voltages on the objects surface. Such voltages are measured, and together with the input currents, and a Finite Element Model (FEM) of the object, used to reconstruct an impedance image of the cross-sectional contents of the imaged object. The reconstruction process involves the numerical solutions of the forward problem; using Finite Element solvers and the resulting ill-posed inverse problem using iterative Optimization or Computational Intelligence methods. This method has applications mainly in the Biomedical imaging and Process monitoring fields. The primary interests of the author are, in imaging and diagnosis of cancer, neonatal pneumonia and neurological disorders which are leading causes of death in Africa and world-wide

Image reconstruction in electrical impedance mammography

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

EIT Imaging of Admittivities with a D-Bar Method and Spatial Prior: Experimental Results for Absolute and Difference Imaging

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is an emerging imaging modality that uses harmless electrical measurements taken on electrodes at a body\u27s surface to recover information about the internal electrical conductivity and or permittivity. The image reconstruction task of EIT is a highly nonlinear inverse problem that is sensitive to noise and modeling errors making the image reconstruction task challenging. D-bar methods solve the nonlinear problem directly, bypassing the need for detailed and time-intensive forward models, to provide absolute (static) as well as time-difference EIT images. Coupling the D-bar methodology with the inclusion of high confidence a priori data results in a noise-robust regularized image reconstruction method. In this work, the a priori D-bar method for complex admittivities is demonstrated effective on experimental tank data for absolute imaging for the first time. Additionally, the method is adjusted for, and tested on, time-difference imaging scenarios. The ability of the method to be used for conductivity, permittivity, absolute as well as time-difference imaging provides the user with great flexibility without a high computational cost

Computational advancements in the D-bar reconstruction method for 2-D electrical impedance tomography

2016 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.We study the problem of reconstructing 2-D conductivities from boundary voltage and current density measurements, also known as the electrical impedance tomography (EIT) problem, using the D-bar inversion method, based on the 1996 global uniqueness proof by Adrian Nachman. We focus on the computational implementation and efficiency of the D-bar algorithm, its application to finite-precision practical data in human thoracic imaging, and the quality and spatial resolution of the resulting reconstructions. The main contributions of this work are (1) a parallelized computational implementation of the algorithm which has been shown to run in real-time, thus demonstrating the feasibility of the D-bar method for use in real-time bedside imaging, and (2) a modification of the algorithm to include \emph{a priori} data in the form of approximate organ boundaries and (optionally) conductivity estimates, which we show to be effective in improving spatial resolution in the resulting reconstructions. These computational advancements are tested using both numerically simulated data as well as experimental human and tank data collected using the ACE1 EIT machine at CSU. In this work, we provide details regarding the theoretical background and practical implementation for each advancement, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm modifications through multiple experiments, and we provide discussion and conclusions based on the results

DICOM for EIT

With EIT starting to be used in routine clinical practice [1], it important that the clinically relevant information is portable between hospital data management systems. DICOM formats are widely used clinically and cover many imaging modalities, though not specifically EIT. We describe how existing DICOM specifications, can be repurposed as an interim solution, and basis from which a consensus EIT DICOM ‘Supplement’ (an extension to the standard) can be writte