A Novel Magnetoelectric Biomagnetic Susceptometer on Iron Level Detection with Mice Tissue in Vitro

Iron plays a vital role in human body. Liver Iron Concentration (LIC) is directly correlated to total body iron and can be an important indicator to a variety of pathologies. Non-invasive methods to quantitatively assess tissue iron with low cost and high sensitivity have drawn vast interests and investments. Among various methods, the magnetoelectric (ME) sensor based biomagnetic liver susceptometer (BLS) is of great promise because it operates at room temperature but with the same principle as that of the well-developed SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device). Here, we report a magnetoelectric (ME) sensor based BLS system exploiting the recently developed PIN-PMN-PT piezoelectric single crystal. The newly developed ME BLS, which employs the horizontal scanning mechanism with a water bath interface to automatically eliminate the diamagnetic background of the tissues and irregular shape of torso, exhibits an overall sensitivity advancement (300X) to the sensor system previously reported. A linear correlation (R² = 0.97) found between the system measurements and the biopsy data demonstrates the validity of the system. The ability to detect signals from only 3cc of mouse liver tissue samples suggests a high spatial resolution which could be used for finer scanning and enable magnetic distribution image and profiling.