Simulations and phantom evaluations of magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT) for breast cancer detection

• Published in: Journal of magnetic resonance (1997) Vol. 230; pp. 40 - 49
• Main Authors: Sadleir, Rosalind J., Sajib, Saurav Z.K., Kim, Hyung Joong, Kwon, Oh In, Woo, Eung Je
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.05.2013
• Subjects: Algorithms; Anomalies; Breast; Breast cancer; Breast Neoplasms - diagnosis; Computer simulation; Conductivity image; Electric Impedance; Equipment Design; Equipment Failure Analysis; Female; Heart; Humans; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - methods; Imaging; Magnetic flux density; Magnetic resonance; Mathematical models; MREIT; Phantoms, Imaging; Plethysmography, Impedance - instrumentation; Plethysmography, Impedance - methods; Reproducibility of Results; Resistivity; Sensitivity and Specificity; Tomography - instrumentation; Tomography - methods; Conductivity image; MREIT; Magnetic flux density; Breast cancer
• ISSN: 1090-7807; 1096-0856
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmr.2013.01.009

[Display omitted] ► Experimental and numerical simulation results of MREIT to detect breast cancer. ► Practical amounts of Bz noise measured from phantom experiment. ► 3D model of the human breast connected to a simplified model of the chest. ► Cancerous anomalies can be detected by injecting less than 1mA currents. MREIT is a new imaging modality that can be used to reconstruct high-resolution conductivity images of the human body. Since conductivity values of cancerous tissues in the breast are significantly higher than those of surrounding normal tissues, breast imaging using MREIT may provide a new noninvasive way of detecting early stage of cancer. In this paper, we present results of experimental and numerical simulation studies of breast MREIT. We built a realistic three-dimensional model of the human breast connected to a simplified model of the chest including the heart and evaluated the ability of MREIT to detect cancerous anomalies in a background material with similar electrical properties to breast tissue. We performed numerical simulations of various scenarios in breast MREIT including assessment of the effects of fat inclusions and effects related to noise levels, such as changing the amplitude of injected currents, effect of added noise and number of averages. Phantom results showed straightforward detection of cancerous anomalies in a background was possible with low currents and few averages. The simulation results showed it should be possible to detect a cancerous anomaly in the breast, while restricting the maximal current density in the heart below published levels for nerve excitation.