Ex-Vivo Prostate Evaluation of Fused-Data TREIT Using Only Biopsy-Probe Electrodes

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Imaging
• Oncology

Background:

• Prostate cancer diagnosis relies on biopsies, which sample limited tissue volume.
• Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) offers a non-invasive imaging modality.
• Transrectal EIT (TREIT) aims to improve prostate cancer detection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a fused-data TREIT method for enhanced prostate cancer imaging.
• To increase the sensed tissue volume compared to standard 12-core biopsies.
• To assess TREIT's utility in conjunction with pathology information.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a previously optimized TREIT algorithm on 22 ex vivo prostates.
• Implemented two TREIT approaches: EIT-P (with prostate boundary) and EIT-P+T (with tumor boundary).
• Validated TREIT against biopsy core, 3D image, and tumor-grade data.

Main Results:

• The EIT-P approach, sensing 15% of prostate tissue, significantly outperformed standard biopsies (<1%).
• Achieved best Area Under the Curve (AUC) values of 0.85, 0.84, and 0.83 for increasing tissue volumes.
• EIT-P+T showed potential for tumor-grade analysis, though further data is needed.

Conclusions:

• Fused-data TREIT substantially increases the sensed volume for prostate cancer imaging.
• TREIT represents a significant advancement over traditional biopsy and prior EIT studies.
• Further in vivo investigation of TREIT for prostate cancer is warranted.