Compensation for Electrode Detachment in Electrical Impedance Tomography with Wearable Textile Electrodes

Area of Science:

• Medical imaging
• Biomedical engineering
• Electrical engineering

Background:

• Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a noninvasive imaging technique using electrical measurements.
• Accurate data acquisition in EIT relies on proper electrode-skin contact.
• Detached electrodes are a frequent issue, leading to significant measurement errors in clinical EIT.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a robust method for detecting faulty electrodes in EIT systems.
• To introduce data compensation techniques for invalid measurements caused by detached electrodes.
• To validate the proposed detection and compensation methods through simulation, experimental, and in vivo studies.

Main Methods:

• A novel approach for identifying faulty electrodes based on differential voltage values was developed.
• Two data compensation strategies, voltage-replace and voltage-shift, were proposed to address invalid data.
• The methods were evaluated using simulation, experimental phantom, and in vivo human chest data.

Main Results:

• The proposed method successfully detected detached electrodes in various EIT scenarios.
• The voltage-replace and voltage-shift techniques effectively compensated for data errors from faulty electrodes.
• Validation across simulation, experimental, and in vivo data confirmed the feasibility and accuracy of the approach.

Conclusions:

• The developed fault detection and data compensation methods significantly improve the reliability of EIT.
• This approach offers a practical solution to a common challenge in EIT clinical applications.
• The findings pave the way for more accurate and dependable EIT-based medical imaging.