title: Experimental verification of contrast mechanism in Magnetic Resonance Electrical Impedance Tomography (MREIT).
abstract: Magnetic Resonance Electrical Impedance Tomography (MREIT) aims to produce cross-sectional images of a conductivity distribution inside the human body with a spatial resolution of a few millimeters. Injecting currents into an imaging object at different directions, we measure induced internal magnetic flux densities using an MRI scanner. Conductivity images are reconstructed based on the relation between the induced magnetic flux density and conductivity. Though there have been theoretical and experimental MREIT studies to explain and validate its imaging method, understanding the contrast mechanism in MREIT could be difficult due to the complexity in associated mathematical expressions. In this paper, we explain the contrast mechanism by performing and analyzing a series of imaging experiments of stable conductivity phantoms. Placing a thin and hollow cylinder with holes around its side inside a saline tank, we could construct a conductivity phantom with a stable conductivity contrast between two regions inside and outside the cylinder. Images of induced magnetic flux densities show ramp structures of which slopes are determined by conductivity contrasts. From the experimental results, we summarize the contrast mechanism in MREIT for better designs of MREIT pulse sequences and data processing methods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Electronics and Information, Kyung Hee University, 1 Seocheon-dong, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, 446-701, Korea.
authors.forename: Young Tae
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Tong In
authors.initials: TI
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Eung Je
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Woo
mesh_terms: D058266:Dielectric Spectroscopy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014054:Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*