title: Electrical property sensing biopsy needle for prostate cancer detection.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Significant electrical property differences have been demonstrated to exist between malignant and benign prostate tissues. We evaluated how well a custom designed clinically deployable electrical property sensing biopsy needle is able to discriminate between these tissue types in an ex vivo prostate model.
  
  
  METHODS
  An electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) sensing biopsy (Bx) needle was developed to record resistive (ρR) and reactive (ρX) components of electrical impedance from 100 Hz to 1 MHz. Standard twelve-core biopsy protocols were followed, in which the EIS-Bx device was used to gauge electrical properties prior to extracting tissue cores through biopsy needle firing from 36 ex vivo human prostates. Histopathological assessment of the cores was statistically compared to the impedance spectrum gauged from each core.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The magnitudes of the mean resistive and reactive components were significantly higher in cancer tissues (P < 0.05). ROC curves showed that ρR at 63.09 kHz was optimal for discriminating cancer from benign tissues; this parameter had 75.4% specificity, 76.1% sensitivity, and ROC AUC of 0.779. Similarly, 251.1 kHz was optimal when using ρX to discriminate cancer from benign tissues; this parameter had a 77.9% specificity, 71.4% sensitivity, and ROC AUC of 0.79.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Significant electrical property differences noted between benign and malignant prostate tissues suggest the potential efficacy an EIS-Bx device would provide for cancer detection in a clinical setting. By sensing a greater fraction of the prostate's volume in real-time, the EIS-Bx device has the potential to improve the accuracy of cancer grading and volume estimation made with current biopsy procedures.
authors.affiliation: Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mishra
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Schned
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hartov
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Heaney
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Seigne
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Halter
mesh_terms: D001707:Biopsy, Needle / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D001823:Body Composition; D058266:Dielectric Spectroscopy; D017097:Electric Impedance; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D011467:Prostate / Q000473:pathology*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: biopsy; electrical impedance; prostate; spectroscopy