Computational Modelling for Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy-Based Diagnosis of Oral Potential Malignant Disorders (OPMD)

Abstract

A multiscale modelling approach has been applied to the simulation of the electrical properties of oral tissue, for the purpose of informing an electrical impedance-based method of oral potential malignant disorder (OPMD) diagnosis. Finite element models of individual cell types, with geometry informed by histological analysis of human oral tissue (normal, hyperplastic and dysplastic), were generated and simulated to obtain electrical parameters. These were then used in a histology-informed tissue scale model, including the electrode geometry of the ZedScan tetrapolar impedance-measurement device. The simulations offer insight into the feasibility of distinguishing moderate dysplasia from severe dysplasia or healthy tissue. For some oral sites, simulated spectra agreed with real measurements previously collected using ZedScan. However, similarities between simulated spectra for dysplastic, keratinised and non-dysplastic but hyperkeratinised tissue suggest that significant keratinisation could cause some OPMD tissues to exhibit larger than expected impedance values. This could lead to misidentification of OPMD spectra as healthy. Sources of uncertainty within the models were identified and potential remedies proposed.

Multiscale Model Development for Electrical Properties of Thyroid and Parathyroid Tissues

“…Furthermore, the electrical behaviour of biological tissues has been a subject of various computational studies documented in the literature. Multiscale Finite Element (FE) models relating to the EIS tetrapolar probe measurements of cervical epithelium [13], bladder [14] and oral tissues [15] have been developed to determine the changes in tissues electrical properties due to cancerous lesions. Some studies have focused on skin, such as a FE model simulating the electrical properties of skin pathologies [16], or assessing the thickness of stratum corneum with an analytical model [17].…”