Contactless bio-impedance monitoring technique for brain cryosurgery in a 3D head model

A contactless induced-current bio-impedance system for monitoring brain cryosurgery procedure was modeled and numerically simulated, where the excitation coil was also performing as the measuring, or pick-up coil. A segmented three-dimensional (3D) MRI database was used for building the volume conductor geometry, and the numerical finite-volume method was employed for solving the forward problem for calculating the scalar potential distribution and the second-order voltage change on the pick-up coil. Several coil configurations were considered, varying in their relative positioning to the 3D head model. For each case, the sensitivity of the measured voltage change on the excitation coil to the volume of a frozen lesion was calculated. The highest sensitivity (1.1 x 10(-5) relative voltage change per mm3 of frozen tissue) was obtained for a coil arrangement where its closest segment to the volume conductor is at the maximum distance away from the frozen region position. The simulated system signal-to-carrier ratio was O(10(-8)).