title: Acousto-electrical speckle pattern in Lorentz force electrical impedance tomography.
abstract: Ultrasound speckle is a granular texture pattern appearing in ultrasound imaging. It can be used to distinguish tissues and identify pathologies. Lorentz force electrical impedance tomography is an ultrasound-based medical imaging technique of the tissue electrical conductivity. It is based on the application of an ultrasound wave in a medium placed in a magnetic field and on the measurement of the induced electric current due to Lorentz force. Similarly to ultrasound imaging, we hypothesized that a speckle could be observed with Lorentz force electrical impedance tomography imaging. In this study, we first assessed the theoretical similarity between the measured signals in Lorentz force electrical impedance tomography and in ultrasound imaging modalities. We then compared experimentally the signal measured in both methods using an acoustic and electrical impedance interface. Finally, a bovine muscle sample was imaged using the two methods. Similar speckle patterns were observed. This indicates the existence of an 'acousto-electrical speckle' in the Lorentz force electrical impedance tomography with spatial characteristics driven by the acoustic parameters but due to electrical impedance inhomogeneities instead of acoustic ones as is the case of ultrasound imaging.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Biorhéologie et d'Ultrasonographie Médicale, Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CRCHUM), Tour Viger, 900 rue Saint-Denis, Montréal (QC) H2X 0A9, Canada.
authors.forename: Pol
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Grasland-Mongrain
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Destrempes
authors.forename: Jean-Martial
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Mari
authors.forename: Rémi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Souchon
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Catheline
authors.forename: Jean-Yves
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Chapelon
authors.forename: Cyril
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lafon
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cloutier
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D017097:Electric Impedance; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014054:Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D014159:Transducers; D014463:Ultrasonography