A realistic pelvic phantom for electrical impedance measurement

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Imaging
• Electrical Impedance Tomography

Background:

• Non-invasive bladder volume monitoring is crucial for clinical management.
• Existing methods for bladder volume assessment have limitations.
• Electrical impedance measurements offer a promising non-invasive approach.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and fabricate an anatomically and conductively accurate phantom for electrical impedance studies.
• To enable accurate non-invasive bladder volume monitoring.
• To serve as a precursor for in-man clinical studies.

Main Methods:

• A modular pelvic phantom was constructed using conductive polyurethane for the boundary wall and bladder phantoms.
• The background medium's conductivity was matched to pelvic tissues.
• Electrical impedance measurements were taken with six different bladder phantoms and analyzed using a finite element model.

Main Results:

• Successfully imaged five different bladder volumes using an empty bladder reference.
• Demonstrated a strong positive correlation between conductivity index and bladder phantom volumes.
• Achieved accurate conductivity measurements within the 50-250 kHz range.

Conclusions:

• A conductively and anatomically accurate pelvic phantom was developed for electrical impedance-based bladder volume monitoring.
• The phantom allows for accurate bladder volume estimation and supports experimental flexibility.
• This validated phantom facilitates system refinement and future clinical investigations.