Conditioning electrical impedance mammography system

A multi-frequency Electrical Impedance Mammography (EIM) system has been developed to evaluate the conductivity and permittivity spectrums of breast tissues, which aims to improve early detection of breast cancer as a non-invasive, relatively low cost and label-free screening (or pre-screening) method. Multi-frequency EIM systems typically employ current excitations and measure differential potentials from the subject under test. Both the output impedance and system performance (SNR and accuracy) depend on the total output resistance, stray and output capacitances, capacitance at the electrode level, crosstalk at the chip and PCB levels. This makes the system design highly complex due to the impact of the unwanted capacitive effects, which substantially reduce the output impedance of stable current sources and bandwidth of the data that can be acquired. To overcome these difficulties, we present new methods to design a high performance, wide bandwidth EIM system using novel second generation current conveyor operational amplifiers based on a gyrator (OCCII-GIC) combination with different current excitation systems to cancel unwanted capacitive effects from the whole system. We reconstructed tomography images using a planar E-phantom consisting of an RSC circuit model, which represents the resistance of extra-cellular (R), intra-cellular (S) and membrane capacitance (C) of the breast tissues to validate the performance of the system. The experimental results demonstrated that an EIM system with the new design achieved a high output impedance of 10MΩ at 1MHz to at least 3MΩ at 3MHz frequency, with an average SNR and modelling accuracy of over 80dB and 99%, respectively

Simple voltage-controlled current source for wideband electrical bioimpedance spectroscopy: circuit dependences and limitations

In this work, the single Op-Amp with load-in-the-loop topology as a current source is revisited. This circuit topology was already used as a voltage-controlled current source (VCCS) in the 1960s but was left unused when the requirements for higher frequency arose among the applications of electrical bioimpedance (EBI). The aim of the authors is not only limited to show that with the currently available electronic devices it is perfectly viable to use this simple VCCS topology as a working current source for wideband spectroscopy applications of EBI, but also to identify the limitations and the role of each of the circuit components in the most important parameter of a current for wideband applications: the output impedance. The study includes the eventual presence of a stray capacitance and also an original enhancement, driving with current the VCCS. Based on the theoretical analysis and experimental measurements, an accurate model of the output impedance is provided, explaining the role of the main constitutive elements of the circuit in the source\u27s output impedance. Using the topologies presented in this work and the proposed model, any electronic designer can easily implement a simple and efficient current source for wideband EBI spectroscopy applications, e. g. in this study, values above 150 k Omega at 1 MHz have been obtained, which to the knowledge of the authors are the largest values experimentally measured and reported for a current source in EBI at this frequency

Electrical impedance-based system to monitor and control the drying process in sausages: the EU DRYCHECK project

“Electrical impedance-based system to monitor and control the drying process in sausages” (DRYCHECK-FP7-SME 2010-1 262029) is an European research project funded by the European Commission within 7th Framework Program of the European Union, SP4 Capacities, Research for the benefit of specific groups, Research for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). DRYCHECK is carried out by a consortium of 4 research and technological development centres (RTD performers) and 5 SMEs (www.drycheck.eu)

Electrical stimulation of cardiac adipose tissue-derived progenitor cells modulates cell phenotype and genetic machinery

A major challenge of cardiac tissue engineering is directing cells to establish the physiological structure and function of the myocardium being replaced. Our aim was to examine the effect of electrical stimulation on the cardiodifferentiation potential of cardiac adipose tissue-derived progenitor cells (cardiac ATDPCs). Three different electrical stimulation protocols were tested; the selected protocol consisted of 2 ms monophasic square-wave pulses of 50 mV/cm at 1 Hz over 14 days. Cardiac and subcutaneous ATDPCs were grown on biocompatible patterned surfaces. Cardiomyogenic differentiation was examined by real-time PCR and immunocytofluorescence. In cardiac ATDPCs, MEF2A and GATA-4 were significantly upregulated at day 14 after stimulation, while subcutaneous ATDPCs only exhibited increased Cx43 expression. In response to electrical stimulation, cardiac ATDPCs elongated, and both cardiac and subcutaneous ATDPCs became aligned following the linear surface pattern of the construct. Cardiac ATDPC length increased by 11.3%, while subcutaneous ATDPC length diminished by 11.2% (p = 0.013 and p = 0.030 vs unstimulated controls, respectively). Compared to controls, electrostimulated cells became aligned better to the patterned surfaces when the pattern was perpendicular to the electric field (89.71 ± 28.47º for cardiac ATDPCs and 92.15 ± 15.21º for subcutaneous ATDPCs). Electrical stimulation of cardiac ATDPCs caused changes in cell phenotype and genetic machinery, making them more suitable for cardiac regeneration approaches. Thus, it seems advisable to use electrical cell training before delivery as a cell suspension or within engineered tissue