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Experimental validations of in vivo human musculoskeletal tissue conductivity images using MR‐based electrical impedance tomography
Author(s) -
Jeong Woo Chul,
Meng Zi Jun,
Kim Hyung Joong,
Kwon Oh In,
Woo Eung Je
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
bioelectromagnetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.435
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1521-186X
pISSN - 0197-8462
DOI - 10.1002/bem.21852
Subject(s) - electrical impedance tomography , in vivo , biomedical engineering , tomography , electrical impedance , nuclear medicine , materials science , medicine , radiology , engineering , biology , electrical engineering , microbiology and biotechnology
Magnetic resonance (MR)‐based electrical impedance tomography (MREIT) is a widely used imaging technique that provides high‐resolution conductivity images at DC or below the 1 kHz frequency range. Using an MR scanner, this technique injects imaging currents into the human body and measures induced internal magnetic flux density data. By applying the recent progress of MREIT techniques, such as chemical shift artifact correction, multi‐echo pulse sequence, and improved reconstruction algorithm, we can successfully reconstruct conductivity images of the human body. Meanwhile, numerous studies reported that the electrical conductivity of human tissues could be inferred from in vitro or ex vivo measurements of different species. However, in vivo tissues may differ from in vitro and/or ex vivo state due to the complicated tissue responses in living organs. In this study, we performed in vivo MREIT imaging of a human lower extremity and compared the resulting conductivity images with ex vivo biological tissue phantom images. The human conductivity images showed unique contrast between two different types of bones, muscles, subcutaneous adipose tissues, and conductive body fluids. Except for muscles and adipose tissues, the human conductivity images showed a similar pattern when compared with phantom results due to the anisotropic characteristic of muscle and the high conductive fluids in the adipose tissue. Bioelectromagnetics. 35:363–372, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.