Technical note: Multi-receiver combination method for phase-based electrical property tomography of the breast.

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Biophysics
• Electrical Engineering

Background:

• Phase-based electrical property tomography (EPT) reconstructs conductivity using only B1 field phase.
• Accuracy is limited by B1 field homogeneity, crucial for breast imaging with multi-receiver coils.

Purpose of the Study:

• Develop an improved multi-receiver combination method for phase-based EPT.
• Enable clinical application of EPT for breast imaging.

Main Methods:

• Presented the theory of a novel multi-receiver combination technique.
• Validated the method using phantom and in-vivo experiments.
• Reconstructed conductivity images from combined transceive phase and compared with a prior method.

Main Results:

• The proposed method demonstrated superior conductivity result stability compared to the previous method, especially with non-homogeneous B1 fields or small homogeneous contrast regions.
• Phantom and in-vivo results confirmed improved conductivity images.
• The new method enhanced conductivity contrast between benign and cancerous breast tissues.

Conclusions:

• The developed method provides a more stable multi-receiver combination for phase-based EPT.
• This advancement is suitable for clinical breast EPT imaging.