3D sensitivity of 6-electrode Focused Impedance Method (FIM)

Abstract

The present work was taken up to have an understanding of the depth sensitivity of the 6 electrode FIM developed by our laboratory earlier, so that it may be applied judiciously for the measurement of organs in 3D, with electrodes on the skin surface. For a fixed electrode geometry sensitivity is expected to depend on the depth, size and conductivity of the target object. With current electrodes 18 cm apart and potential electrodes 5 cm apart, depth sensitivity of spherical conductors, insulators and of pieces of potato of different diameters were measured. The sensitivity dropped sharply with depth gradually leveling off to background, and objects could be sensed down to a depth of about twice their diameters. The sensitivity at a certain depth increases almost linearly with volume for objects with the same conductivity. Thus these results increase confidence in the use of FIM for studying organs at depths of the body. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd.