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A LabVIEW Based Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT)

System for Radiation Free Medical Imaging

Tushar Kanti Bera, J. Nagaraju

Cite this article as: Tushar Kanti Bera and J . Nagaraju, A LabVIEW Based Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT)
System for Radiation Free Medical Imaging, National Instruments Graphical System Design Achievement Awards 2011
(NI GSDAA 2011), National Instruments Inc., http://sine.ni.com/cs/app/doc/p/id/cs-14779, pp 1-6.

Goal of The Project:

Tomographic imaging enables the doctors to visualize the human body for detecting a number of
diseases as well as for studying the physiological status of the patients required for several routine
clinical investigations. X-ray computed tomography, MRI, PET are very expensive and have the side
effects due to radiation (X-Ray CT), high magnetic field (MRI), die injection (PET) etc. Patient
preparation and very long data acquisition time make these techniques also lengthier. Moreover, these
techniques cannot be used for ambulatory monitoring and sometimes not suitable for critical ill
patients. Hence, a safe, low cost and portable tomographic imager is essential for radiation free
medical imaging especially for the ICU patients and ambulatory monitoring.

The Solution:

Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT), a radiation free imaging method, injects a low amplitude ac
current to the patient body and surface potentials are acquired to reconstruct the tomographic image
of the subject. NI data acquisition card and LabVIEW software enabled us to conduct EIT experiments
by a suitable current injection and voltage measurements by switching the electrodes attached to the
patients body.

Benefits of using NI Products:

NI data acquisition card and LabVIEW software enabled us to make our EIT system very fast, low cost,
user friendly and portable. The analog and digital I/O ports of the NIUSB card with LabVIEW software
also make our system more, faster, user friendly and easy to control the EIT system. DIP switched
based multiplexer data acquisition system.

Description:

Tomographic imaging is a diagnostic modality in which the doctor can get a two dimensional view of
the patients body cross section. It enables the doctors to visualize the human body for detecting a
number of diseases. It also helps to study the physiological status required for routine clinical
investigations. Traditional tomographic techniques such as X-Ray CT, MRI, PET are very expensive.
These machines are huge and bulky and hence these scanners are required to be installed in a fixed
place of the hospitals or diagnostic centres.
The available tomographic scanners have their own side effects due to radiation (X-Ray CT), high
magnetic field (MRI), die injection (PET) etc. Also, patient preparation and very long data acquisition
time make these procedures lengthier. Furthermore, these techniques cannot be always used for
emergency, ICU and infants. They are also not suitable for bedside monitoring, ambulatory scanning
and for imaging of the patients at home. X-ray CT, MRI and PET are very expensive and large in size.
And hence need expert clinicians, doctors or physicians to operate. These instruments also require a
very large and fixed space with proper shielding for radiation or magnetic fields. As the instruments
are very expensive and needs a technically designed place, the patient monitoring cost become high.
Therefore, a safe, low cost, portable tomographic imager which is suitable for ambulatory monitoring
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and critical patient monitoring is essential for versatile clinical diagnosis. In this direction, the first
impedance imaging system, the Impedance Camera, was constructed by Henderson and Webster to
study the pulmonary edema in 1978. Being a non-invasive, non-radiating, non-ionizing and
inexpensive methodology, EIT has been extensively researched in clinical diagnosis, biotechnology and
other nondestructive methods like landmine detection, semiconductor wafer characterization and
nondestructive evaluation of brick walls and rocks. Due to its several advantages, EIT can be suitably
used for imaging the breast tumor/cancer, brain tumor/cancer, brain functioning, epilepsy, lung
functioning, heart functioning, Transthoracic abnormalities, pulmonary edema, gastric emptying etc.
In EIT, the spatial distribution of electrical conductivity () or resistivity () within a closed domain ()
is reconstructed from the surface potentials, developed by injecting constant electrical current (Fig.-1)
at the domain boundary () by using a computer program called image reconstruction algorithm.
The surface potentials developed depends on the current flux which depends on the material profile
(Fig.-2). Hence studying the boundary potential data internal material profile can be reconstructed.
EIT not only give the tomographic image but also it gives the physiological properties which can be
potentially used for several clinical investigations, pathological analysis and medical diagnosis.

Figure 1: A closed domain () under EIT: a constant current is injected at the domain boundary ()
and the conductivity () is reconstructed from the surface potentials developed using reconstruction
algorithm.
In Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, we have developed a 16-electrode EIT system which injects
a low amplitude low frequency ac current to the subject and surface potentials are acquired (Fig.-2) to
reconstruct its tomographic image. Our EIT system has three parts: EIT sensors or electrodes,
electronic instrumentation and a personal computer (PC) with reconstruction algorithm. EIT sensors
are basically the surface electrodes made up of any suitable metal or metal composite such as
Ag/AgCl, stainless steel etc. Electronic instrumentation consists of a constant current injector (CCI),
electrode switching module (ESM), signal conditioner block (SCB) and a USB based data acquisition
system (DAS). CCI is made up of a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) feeding the voltage signal to a
voltage controlled current source (VCCS). VCO is developed with a MAX038 IC (Maxim Inc. USA) IC
and it generates a sinusoidal signal feeding to VCCS. VCCS is basically a modified Howland constant
current generator developed with AD829 ICs (Analog Devices Inc.). SCB is developed with a 50 Hz
notch filter and a narrow band pass filter with a center frequency of 50 kHz. The automatic ESM (Fig.-
3) is developed with four 16-channel CMOS analog multiplexers (MUX) controlled by the digital bits
generated by the D/O ports of the DAS. DAS is developed with a NIUSB6251 data acquisition card
(DAQ) controlled by a data acquisition programme written in LabVIEW 8.2 software. The data
acquisition programme interfaces the EIT hardware with the PC for an automatic current injection and
voltage measurement through the automatic ESM. Also, using NIUSB6251 card and LabVIEW based
GUI, an electrical current signal of suitable amplitude and frequency is injected to the subject and the
boundary potentials are collected by using a particular current injection protocol. NI hardware and
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LabVIEW software enabled us to make our EIT system very fast, automatic, user friendly, portable and
cost effective.
The 16-bit parallel data (D
15
D
14
D
13
D
12
D
11
D
10
D
9
D
8
D
7
D
6
D
5
D
4
D
3
D
2
D
1
D
0
) generated by NIDAQ card, are
supplied to the ESM for operating the multiplexers MUX-I
1
and MUX-I
2
, MUX-V
1
and MUX-V
2
(Fig.-3)
each of which works with four bit digital data. 8-bit digital data are fed to the four selector pins of
MUX-I
1
and MUX-I
2
for current electrode switching and other 8-bit digital data are fed to the four
selector pins of MUX-V
1
and MUX-V
2
for voltage electrode switching.

Figure 2: Electrical current conduction and boundary data collection for a circular practical phantom
(a circular domain) with an inhomogeneity (shown by the yellow colored circle).
The IISc EIT system needs only 14 seconds to acquire the full set of data and other few second to get
the image and hence the whole diagnostic imaging is completed in less than a minute. Only one
person is required to conduct the experiment even the patient can operate it in his seating condition.
The EIT system is portable, compact, light and small. Compared to the other imaging modalities, the
EIT system developed has several unique advantages: 1) noninvasive technique, 2) radiation free, 3)
low instrumentation cost, 4) low diagnosis cost 5) portable (only one laptop, instrumentation box with
16 electrode probes, 6) suitable for bedside measurement, 7) suitable for ambulatory monitoring, 8)
no patient preparation no precautions, 9) suitable for patient in emergency, patients in ICU, critical ill
patients and child patients and infants.
EIT system developed (Fig.-4) is tested and calibrated with different practical phantoms developed
with biological and non-biological materials such as NaCl-Nylon (Fig.-5), NaCl-Carrot (Fig.-6), Chicken
Tissue Paste Fat Tissue (Fig.-7) etc. A 1 mA, 50 kHz constant sinusoidal current is injected to the
phantom boundary and the RMS potential on all the electrodes is measured and the complete voltage
data set (contains 256 voltage data for a sixteen electrode system) are saved as a .txt file in PC for
computation. Our EIT system is also used for imaging the human body tissue using 1 mA, 50 kHz
(medically safe) current. Sixteen electrodes (ECG electrodes) are pasted on the patient thigh (Fig.-8)
under test using ECG gel and the current signal is injected. Boundary potential data are measured for
different projections to get a complete scan (360) of the body cross section. Resistivity images are
reconstructed in Electrical Impedance and Diffuse Optical Reconstruction Software (EIDORS) and all
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the reconstructed images are studied and analyzed with resistivity parameters and contrast
parameters calculated from the image resistivity profiles.
Results show that the DAQ system sequentially generated the digital data and all the surface
electrodes are successfully switched for data acquisition. Boundary data are acquired with high SNR by
the DAS and successfully stored in the PC. Resistivity images show that the inhomogeneities are
efficiently reconstructed from the potential data collected from the NaCl phantoms with inhomogeneity
and background (NaCl solution) resistivity. Chicken tissue phantom is also reconstructed with the
proper background and inhomogeneity resistivities. Resistivity parameters and contrast parameters
showed that all the images are successfully reconstructed with their proper resistivity profiles. It is
also observed that the femur bone is also reconstructed with its proper background resistivity
representing the human muscle resistivity (1.49 m) at 50 kHz.

Figure 3: Electrode switching module (ESM) and the electrode connections of a sixteen electrode EIT
system (current sources is denoted by I and the voltage sources is denoted by V).
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The EIT system developed in the IISc Bangalore is tested with a number of practical phantoms and
their resistivity images are suitably reconstructed, studied and analyzed. We also applied our EIT
system for human body imaging. It can be used to study the physiological status of the human body
which will help us to detect and monitor a number of disease and abnormalities in human body. In its
later version it can also be used for imaging of body tumor or lesions including cancers. We have
designed our EIT system in such a way that the system can also be used for nondestructive evaluation
of other biological and non-biological objects in different fields like biotechnology, microbiology,
polymer science, civil engineering and material engineering.

Figure 4: Experimental setup of an EIT system with a practical phantom with NaCl solution and nylon
inhomogeneity.

Figure 5: Resistivity imaging of a NaCl-nylon phantom: (a) NaCl phantom with a nylon cylinder at
electrode no. 3, (b) Resistivity image of the phantom.
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Figure 6: Resistivity imaging of a NaCl-carrot phantom: (a) NaCl phantom with a carrot cylinder at
electrode no. 3, (b) Resistivity image of the phantom.

Figure 7: Resistivity imaging of a chicken tissue phantom: (a) Chicken muscle tissue paste phantom
with a fat cylinder at electrode no. 5, (b) Resistivity image of the phantom.

Figure 8: Resistivity imaging of a human thigh: (a) Human thigh with surface electrodes (ECG
electrodes) pasted on the skin with ECG gel. (b) Resistivity image of the thigh with femur bone.
Products used for this project: NI LabVIEW 8.2, NI-DAQMX, NI USB-6251, NI SCB-68 and other electrical and electronics
components.