A feasibility study of magnetic resonance driven electrical impedance tomography using a phantom

Imaging the electrical properties of human tissue may aid in cancer diagnoses or monitoring organ function. Traditionally, the electrical properties are revealed with electrical impedance tomography, where currents are injected into human tissue and voltages are measured on the surface. This paper focuses on a method of measuring the electrical properties using a magnetic resonance (MR) scanner without current injection. In magnetic resonance driven electrical impedance tomography (MRDEIT), the MR phenomenon is used to induce currents in the body and the complex permittivity map is inversely computed from the difference between the modeled electric field and the actual surface electrode measurements. Computer simulations indicate that with noise level under 20%, the contrast is visually discernible in the reconstruction image. A phantom experiment is demonstrated and this supports results from computer simulation studies. The noise level in electrode measurements is evaluated to be approximately 7.8% from repeated experiments, confirming the potential to reconstruct conductivity contrast using MRDEIT. With further improvements in hardware and image reconstruction, MRDEIT may provide an additional contrast mechanism reflecting the electrical properties of human tissue, which may ultimately be used to diagnose a cancer or assist in electroencephalography.