Open electrical impedance tomography: Computer simulation and system realization

Abstract

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a non-invasive technique used to image the electrical conductivity and permittivity within a body from measurements taken on body's surface. But the low spatial resolution of imaging, complicated operation and the asymmetrical placement of electrodes make the EIT cannot achieve the requirements of clinical application. In this paper, we proposed a novel idea of open electrical impedance tomography (OEIT) and a new type of electrode to provide more valuable distribution information of electrical impedance for local subsurface biological tissues than closed EIT. The OEIT system is constructed. The electromagnetic mathematical models of OEIT are presented and a method to solving the boundary value problem of half infinite calculating region is proposed for the computer simulations. Furthermore, we have realized the OEIT system, and completed the physics and the clinical experiments. Experiment results show that the OEIT system can obtain a better resolution and positioning accuracy, and is more suitable for clinical application. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.