title: Electrical impedance tomography of electrolysis.
abstract: The primary goal of this study is to explore the hypothesis that changes in pH during electrolysis can be detected with Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT). The study has relevance to real time control of minimally invasive surgery with electrolytic ablation. To investigate the hypothesis, we compare EIT reconstructed images to optical images acquired using pH-sensitive dyes embedded in a physiological saline agar gel phantom treated with electrolysis. We further demonstrate the biological relevance of our work using a bacterial E.Coli model, grown on the phantom. The results demonstrate the ability of EIT to image pH changes in a physiological saline phantom and show that these changes correlate with cell death in the E.coli model. The results are promising, and invite further experimental explorations.
authors.affiliation: Biophysics Graduate Program, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Arie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meir
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rubinsky
mesh_terms: D017097:Electric Impedance; D004572:Electrolysis; D004926:Escherichia coli; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration