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Al Walaie - Electrical Impedance Tomography (2003) PDF
Al Walaie - Electrical Impedance Tomography (2003) PDF
Al Walaie - Electrical Impedance Tomography (2003) PDF
Tomography
By
Waleed A. AlWalaie
Supervised By
Dr. Saleh AlShebeili
January, 2003
Abstract
References …………………………………………………… 24
CHAPTER1
Introduction to Electrical Tomography
Contents:
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT)
1.2 Electromagnetic Tomography (EMT)
1.3 Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT)
1.0 Introduction
The term tomography derives from the Greek tomos (cutting) and grapho
(to write). Originally the term was applied to sectional radiography
achieved by a synchronous motion of the x-ray source and detector in
order to blur undesired data while creating a sharp image of the selected
plane [1].
1
1.1 Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT)
Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) is a technique for obtaining
information about the distribution of the contents of closed pipes or
vessels by measuring variations in the permittivity or dielectric properties
of the material inside the vessel. Typical information obtainable includes
cross-sectional images of the vessel contents and the measurement of the
volume fraction and velocities of the contents of pipes for two-phase
flows.
Radial Guard
Electrode
Outer Screen
Fig 1.1 ECT Sensor arrangement
2
It is not necessary for the electrodes to make physical contact with
the specimen, so they can be used on conveyer-lines, or externally
mounted to plastic piping to reduce the risk of contamination. This kind
of imager has been used to study pneumatic and belt-conveyed transport
of granular materials, such as rape seeds and powders, foam interfaces
and stability, flow regimes within gas fluidized beds, and reactor vessel
depressurization [2].
3
EMT is an emerging technique, technically more demanding than
ECT and EIT in terms of the design of the transducers and measurement
electronics. EMT's ability to penetrate through non-conducting materials
makes it an attractive measurement modality, although like ECT is
unable to image through metal walls (metal wall prevents the EM wave
from going inside the pipe).
In the medical field, the most studied applications for EIT are
measurement of gastric emptying, lung function, monitoring tissue
electroporation for molecular medicine [3], and brain imaging. In the
industrial field typical applications are imaging the distribution of oil and
water in a pipeline, imaging the flow of substances in a mixing vessel,
and angular velocity detection [4].
4
In the first part, we will discuss the Electrical Impedance
Tomography in more details; including EIT applications, data collection
methods, and mathematical model. In the second part of this project, we
will give an overview to the reconstruction algorithms, and then we will
implement one of these algorithms and evaluate its performance using
actual measured data.
5
CHAPTER 2
Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT)
Contents:
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Applications of EIT
2.3 Advantages of EIT
2.4 Data Collection Methods
2.1 Introduction
In the previous chapter, electrical tomography was introduced.
Impedance is one of the best electrical properties that can be used to
distinguish between different bodies that have different impedivity.
6
Figure 2.1: 16 electrodes attached on the boundary of an object for current injection and voltage
measurement.
7
haemorrhage [9], and monitoring tissue electroporation for molecular
medicine [3].
Table 2.1:
Resistivities of different tissues at 10kHz [10].
Tissue ρ(Ωm)
CSF 0.65
Blood 1.5
Liver 3.5
Skeletal muscle (longitudinal) 1.25
Skeletal muscle (transverse) 18.00
Myocardium (longitudinal) 1.6
Myocardium (transverse) 4.24
Neural tissue 5.8
Gray matter 2.84
White matter 6.82
Lungs (out-in) 7.27-23.63
Fat 27.2
Bone 166
8
differs significantly from that of the normal breast tissue. EIT is based on
the contrast in electrical properties of the tissue and can thus be used to
find tumors that are undetectable by mammography. The identification
of lung edema provides another example of the diagnostic benefits of EIT.
Edema is an excessive accumulation of fluid in the cells, tissue spaces,
or body cavities due to a disturbance in the fluid exchange mechanism.
Because EIT is non-invasive, it can be used to identify edema without
causing any change in the volume of the thoracic liquid. Other
identification techniques may require invasive procedures; which result
in changes of lung impedance and inaccurate results, or x-rays, which
can be harmful in other ways and cannot be used long term.
9
decreasing rapidly as a function of distance. The voltage is measured
successively with electrode pairs 3-4, 4-5, . . . 15-16. From these 13
voltage measurements the first four measurements are illustrated in Fig.
2.1A. All these 13 measurements are independent. Each of them is
assumed to represent the impedance between the equipotential lines
intersecting the measurement electrodes. This is indicated with shading
for the voltage measurement between electrodes 6 and 7.
The next set of 13 voltage measurements is obtained by feeding the
current through electrodes 2 and 3, as shown in Fig. 2.1B. For a 16-
electrode system, 16×13 = 208 voltage measurements are obtained.
Because of reciprocity, those measurements in which the current
electrodes and voltage electrodes are interchanged yield identical
measurement results. Therefore, only 104 measurements are
independent. In the neighboring method, the measured voltage is at a
maximum with adjacent electrode pairs. With opposite electrode pairs,
the voltage is only about 2.5% of that.
10
Fig. 2.1 Neighboring method of impedance data collection illustrated for a cylindrical volume conductor and 16 equally
spaced electrodes. (A) The first four voltage measurements for the set of 13 measurements are shown. (B) Another
set of 13 measurements is obtained by changing the current feeding electrodes.
Cross Method
A more uniform current distribution is obtained when the current is
injected between a pair of more distant electrodes. Hua, Webster, and
Tompkins [13] suggested such a method called the cross method (see Fig.
2.2).
In the cross method, adjacent electrodes - for instance 16 and 1,
as shown in Fig. 2.2A - are first selected for current and voltage reference
electrodes, respectively. The other current electrode, electrode number 2
is first used. The voltage is measured successively for all other 13
electrodes with the aforementioned electrode 1 as a reference. (The first
four voltage measurements are again shown in Fig. 2.2A.) The current is
then applied through electrode 4 and the voltage is again measured
successively for all other 13 electrodes with electrode 1 as a reference, as
shown in Fig. 2.2B. One repeats this procedure using electrodes 6, 8 . . .
14; the entire procedure thus includes 7×13 = 91 measurements.
The measurement sequence is then repeated using electrodes 3
and 2 as current and voltage reference electrodes, respectively (see Fig.
2.2C). Applying current first to electrode 5, one then measures the
voltage successively for all other 13 electrodes with electrode 2 as a
reference. One repeats this procedure again by applying current to
electrode 7 (see Fig. 2.2D). Applying current successively to electrodes 9,
11. . . 1 and measuring the voltage for all other 13 electrodes with the
aforementioned electrode 2 as a reference, one makes 91 measurements.
From these 182 measurements only 104 are independent. The cross
method does not have as good a sensitivity in the periphery as does the
neighboring method, but has better sensitivity over the entire region.
11
Fig. 2.2 Cross method of impedance data collection. The four different steps of this procedure are
illustrated in A through D.
Opposite Method
Another alternative for the impedance measurement is the opposite
method, illustrated in Fig. 2.3 (Hua, Webster, and Tompkins [13]). In this
method current is injected through two diametrically opposed electrodes
(electrodes 16 and 8 in Fig. 2.3A). The electrode adjacent to the current-
injecting electrode is used as the voltage reference. Voltage is measured
from all other electrodes except from the current electrodes, yielding 13
12
voltage measurements (the first four of these measurements are again
shown).
The next set of 13 voltage measurements is obtained by selecting
electrodes 1 and 9 for current electrodes (Fig. 2.3B). When 16 electrodes
are used, the opposite method yields 8×13 = 104 data points. The
current distribution in this method is more uniform and, therefore, has a
good sensitivity.
Adaptive Method
In the aforementioned methods, current has been injected with a pair of
electrodes and voltage has been measured similarly. In the adaptive
method, proposed by Gisser, Isaacson, and Newell [14], current is
injected through all electrodes (see Fig. 2.4A). Because current flows
through all electrodes simultaneously, as many independent current
generators are needed as are electrodes used. The electrodes can feed a
current from -5 to +5 mA, allowing different current distributions.
Homogeneous current distribution may be obtained only in a
homogeneous volume conductor.
13
The voltages are measured with respect to a single grounded
electrode. When one is using 16 electrodes, the number of voltage
measurements for a certain current distribution is 15.
14
CHAPTER 3
The Mathematical Model
Contents:
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Mathematical Model
3.2.1 The Equation inside the Body
3.2.2 Boundary Conditions
3.1 Introduction
In the EIT reconstruction problem the first step is to construct a
physical model for observations. This means that equations have to be
derived which connects measured voltages, injected currents and a
resistivity distribution. Starting from basic Maxwell's equations of
electromagnetism, the equations for this physical model can be derived.
In all the models used in EIT the equation that covers the interior
of the body is the same but the boundary conditions differ. In this
chapter these different physical models that are widely used in EIT are
presented.
15
kHz, are applied to the electrodes and the resulting voltages are
measured. The current is applied between two of the electrodes or to all
electrodes and the voltages are measured between adjacent electrodes or
from all electrodes with respect to one reference. In the following, the
physical models for EIT with certain boundary conditions are derived.
D = εE (3.4)
B = µH (3.5)
J = σE (3.6)
where ε is the permittivity, µ is the permeability and σ is the conductivity
of the medium. In EIT the bodies are usually approximated as isotropic.
Anisotropic considerations in the connection with EIT can be found e.g.
in [15, 16].
Using the relations (3.4-3.6) and assuming that the injected
currents are time harmonic, the equations (3.1, 3.2) can be written in the
form
∇ × E = −iωµH (3.7)
∇ × H = J + iωεE (3.8)
16
In EIT, there are current sources that are here denoted with Js.
Therefore the current density is divided into two components J = Jo + Js
where Jo = σE is the so-called ohmic current. Now the equations (3.7, 3.8)
can be written in the form
∇ × E = −iωµH (3.9)
∇ × H = J s + (σ + iωε ) E (3.10)
ωε
ωµσLc 1 + << 1 (3.12)
σ
where Lc is a characteristic distance over which E varies significantly,
then the effect of magnetic induction can be neglected.
Another approximation that is quite often made in EIT is that the
capacitive effects (iωεE, in 3.8) are neglected. This approximation is valid
[17] if
ωε
<< 1 (3.13)
σ
With the above approximations the modified Maxwell's equations
in linear, isotropic medium under quasi-static conditions are
E = −∇u (3.14)
∇ × H = J s + σE (3.15)
Taking the divergence on both sides of equation (3.15) and substituting
(3.14) into (3.15) the equation
17
∇ ⋅ (σ∇u ) = 0 , (3.16)
for EIT inside the body. This is true since there is no source inside the
body Js = 0.
∫τ ∇ ⋅ σE dτ = − ∫τ ∇ ⋅ J dτ ,
s
(3.17)
∫ σE ⋅ν dS = − ∫ J ⋅ν dS ,
s
(3.18)
S S
where S is the boundary of τ and ν is the unit normal. When the volume
τ → 0 the top and the bottom of the cylinder coincide. Since Js = 0 inside
the object and on the other hand E = 0 outside the object, the relation
18
Fig. 3.1: Derivation of boundary conditions. Js1 and Js2 are the current source densities
outside and inside the object, respectively. E1 and E2 are the corresponding electric
fields.
CONTINUUM MODEL
This model assumes that there are no electrodes and injected current j is
a continuous function, that is
j (t ) = C cos(kt ) , (3.21)
where C is constant . With experimental data it has been shown that this
model overestimates the resistivities as much as 25% [18]. This is
because the effects of the electrodes are totally ignored.
GAP MODEL
The gap model assumes that the injected current j is
Il
x ∈ el , l = 1,2,K, L
j = | el | , (3.22)
0 L
x ∉ Ul =1 el
where el is the area of the electrode, Il is injected current into the l’th
electrode and L is the number of electrodes. This model gives only a
slight improvement over the continuum model but still overestimates the
resistivities. Both the continuum and the gap models ignore the shunting
effect of the electrodes and also the contact impedances that arise due to
the electrochemical effect at the contact surface.
19
SHUNT MODEL
The shunt model takes into account the shunting effect of the electrode,
that is, the potential on the electrode is constant. Also the boundary
condition (3.21) is replaced with a more reliable condition
∂u
∫σ
el
∂ν
dS = I l , x ∈ el , l = 1,2,K, L (3.23)
∂u L (3.27)
σ = 0, x ∉ Ul =1 el
∂ν
20
L (3.28)
∑I
l =1
l =0
L (3.29)
∑U
l =1
l =0
This model has been shown to predict the measured voltages at the
precision of the measurement system [19].
21
Future Work
22
categories. The first are noniterative (single-step) techniques, based on
linear approximations. The basic assumption of these methods is that
the conductivity distribution is approximately homogeneous. Example of
these linear approximation methods includes the Barber-Brown
backprojection [21]. Single-step methods can generally be divided into
two broad categories: backprojection [21] and sensitivity matrix methods
[22]
The second broad category is iterative techniques. Iterative
techniques are nearly always used to try to solve the 'static'
reconstruction problem, i.e., find the actual resistivity in the body rather
than a change in resistivity. These include NOSER algorithm [23] and
others [24, 25].
Most of the literatures available are published to give a general
mathematical basis to these algorithms because most of them are used
mainly for commercial purposes, so in the second part of the project, we
will give an overview to the reconstruction algorithms currently available,
and then we will implement one of these algorithms and evaluate its
performance using actual measured data.
23
References
[1] M. D. Fox, Leon A. Frizzel, Medical Imaging. CRC Press LLC, 2000.
[7] B.M. Eyüboglu, B.H. Brown, and D.C. Barber, “In vivo imaging of
cardiac related impedance changes,” IEEE Eng Med Biol Mag, pp.
39-45, 1989.
[8] J.C. Newell, P.M. Edic, J.L. Larson-Wiseman X. Ren, and M.D.
Danyleiko, “Assessment of acute pulmonary edema in dogs by
electrical impedance tomography,” IEEE Trans Biomed Eng, vol. 43,
pp. 133-8, 1996.
[9] R.J. Sadleir, R.A. Fox, F.J. van Kann, and Y. Attikiouzel,
“Estimating volumes of intra-abdominal blood using electrical
24
impedance imaging,” In Proc 14th Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol
Society, pp. 1750-1, 1992.
[12] Brown BH, Segar AD, “The Sheffield data collection system,” Clin.
Phys. Physiol. Measurement, vol. 8, Suppl A, pp. 91-7, 1987.
[17] P.L. Nunez, Electric fields of the brain: the neurophysics of EEG.
Oxford University Press, New York, 1981.
[18] K.-S. Cheng, D. Isaacson, J.C. Newell, and D.G. Gisser, “Electrode
models for electric current computed tomography,” IEEE Trans
Biomed Eng, vol. 36, pp.918-24, 1989.
25
[21] N. J. Avis and D. C. Barber, "Incorporating a priori information
into the Sheffield filtered backprojection algorithm," Physiol. Meas.,
vol. 16, no. 3, Suppl. A, pp. A111-22, 1995.
26