title: Basic study of a diagnostic modality employing a new electrical impedance tomography (EIT) method for noninvasive measurement in localized tissues.
abstract: The objective of this study is to develop a device for noninvasive local tissue electrical impedance tomography (EIT) using divided electrodes with guard electrodes and to validate its effectiveness using bioequivalent phantoms. For this purpose, we prepared a measurement device and bioequivalent phantoms, measured the electrical characteristics of the phantoms, and validated the method using the phantoms. Monolayer phantoms mimicking the brain and muscle and bilayer phantoms consisting of muscle and brain layers were prepared. The relative differences between the measured electrical conductivities of the monolayer brain and muscle phantoms and the true values determined by the 4-electrode method were both less than 10%. The relative differences between the measured and true values in the bilayer phantoms were less than 20% in both layers. The biological impedance measurement device that we developed was confirmed to be effective for impedance measurement in bilayer phantoms with different electrical impedances. To develop a device for the early diagnosis of breast diseases, the development of a multi-layer phantom and demonstration of the effectiveness of the device for its examination are necessary. If the device that we developed makes impedance measurement in breast tumors possible, it may be used as a new diagnostic modality for breast diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic, Endocrine Surgery and Oncology, Institute of Health Biosciences, the University of Tokushima Graduate School, Tokushima, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okazaki
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tangoku
authors.forename: Tadaoki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Morimoto
authors.forename: Ryosuke
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kotani
authors.forename: Keigo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hattori
authors.forename: Emiko
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yasuno
authors.forename: Masatake
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Akutagawa
authors.forename: Yohsuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kinouchi
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism; D017097:Electric Impedance; D004566:Electrodes; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009132:Muscles / Q000378:metabolism; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D014054:Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*