Three groups of materials have been assessed with a Hewlett-Packard 4284A impedance analyser and Sheffield Mark 1 electrical impedance tomography (EIT) system for suitability for calibration of multifrequency EIT systems. They were required to be easy to use, stable over several hours, and have complex impedance similar to biological tissue. The groups were: (i) inorganic materials including barium titanate, polystyrene microspheres and fumed silica, all in aqueous suspension; these had phase angles below 1 degrees and so were unsuitable. (ii) Cucumber in KCl solution. Cucumber cortex had a phase angle of 40 degrees at a centre frequency of 50 kHz. Contrast between the cucumber and bathing solution could be selected by varying the KCl concentration. (iii) Polyurethane sponge immersed in packed red cells. The phase angle of packed cells was about 25 degrees at 1 MHz. Sponge resistivities and permittivities when immersed in packed cells were 5-20% higher than the bathing solution itself, for densities of 2-6.2% w/v. Both the biological materials appear suitable for the intended purpose; system (iii) is inherently more stable, and has capacitance in both bathing medium and test object. If an initial accuracy of greater than about +/- 15% is required, direct measurement with an impedance analyser is recommended prior to imaging studies.

The purpose of this study was to determine if electrical impedance tomography (EIT) could be used to image impedance changes of several per cent over tens of seconds, known to occur during evoked activity of the cerebral cortex. A ring of 16 electrodes was placed on the exposed superior surface of the brain of anaesthetized rabbits. EIT images were acquired every 15 s using a Sheffield Mark 1 EIT system. During periods of 2.5-3 min of intense photic stimulation of both eyes or electrical stimulation of a forepaw, reproducible impedance decreases of 4.5 +/- 2.7% and 2.7 +/- 2.4% (mean +/- SD) respectively occurred in appropriate cortical areas, with a time course similar to the period of stimulation. They were accompanied by adjacent smaller impedance increases. The decreases are probably due to increased blood flow and temperature; the cause of the adjacent increases may be a shadowing artefact of the reconstruction algorithm or due to physiological shrinkage of the extracellular space. This demonstrated, for the first time, that such small changes may be imaged under optimal conditions. These results are encouraging to the prospect that EIT may eventually be suitable for imaging evoked responses or epilepsy in human subjects.

A novel algorithm for the reconstruction of dynamic images using diametric excitation has been developed. The algorithm is specifically designed to image impedance changes in the brain using boundary data obtained from scalp electrodes by incorporating a priori information. The a priori information is obtain by solving the forward problem using a finite-element model (FEM) which includes the discontinuity of the skull resistivity. The advantages with this new approach are that the sensitivity and accuracy of the location of the impedance changes are improved compared to methods based on adjacent excitation.

A novel approach to image reconstruction for electrical impedance tomography (EIT) has been developed. It is based on a constrained optimization technique for the reconstruction of difference resistivity images without finite-element modelling. It solves the inverse problem by optimizing a cost function under constraints, in the form of normalized boundary potentials. Its application to the neighboring data collection method is presented here. Mathematical models are developed according to specified criteria. These express the reconstructed image in terms of one-dimensional Lagrange multiplier functions. The reconstruction problem becomes one of estimating these functions from normalized boundary potentials. This model is based on a cost criterion of the minimization of the variance between the reconstructed and the true resistivity distributions. The algorithm was tested on data collected in a cylindrical saline-filled tank. A polyacrylamide rod was placed in various positions with or without a peripheral plaster of Paris ring in place. This was intended to resemble the conditions during EIT of epileptic seizures recorded with scalp or cortical electrodes in the human head. One advantage of this approach is that compensation for non-uniform initial conditions may be made, as this is a significant problem in imaging cerebral activity through the skull.