In Vivo High-ResolutionConductivity Imaging of the Human Leg Using MREIT: The First Human Experiment

We present the first in vivo cross-sectional conductivity image of the human leg with 1.7 mm pixel size using the magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT) technique. After a review of its experimental protocol by an Institutional Review Board (IRB), we performed MREIT imaging exper...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on medical imaging 2009-11, Vol.28 (11), p.1681-1687
Main Authors: Hyung Joong Kim, Young Tae Kim, Minhas, A.S., Woo Chul Jeong, Eung Je Woo, Jin Keun Seo, Kwon, O.J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bones
Conductivity
Conductivity image
Human subjects
Humans
Image reconstruction
In vivo
in vivo human imaging
Leg
Magnetic resonance
magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT)
Magnetic resonance imaging
Medical imaging
Pixel
Surface impedance
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Summary:We present the first in vivo cross-sectional conductivity image of the human leg with 1.7 mm pixel size using the magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT) technique. After a review of its experimental protocol by an Institutional Review Board (IRB), we performed MREIT imaging experiments of four human subjects using a 3 T MRI scanner. Adopting thin and flexible carbon-hydrogel electrodes with a large surface area and good contact, we could inject as much as 9 mA current in a form of 15 ms pulse into the leg without producing a painful sensation and motion artifact. Sequentially injecting two imaging currents in two different directions, we collected induced magnetic flux density data inside the leg. Scaled conductivity images reconstructed by using the single-step harmonic B z algorithm well distinguished different parts of the subcutaneous adipose tissue, muscle, crural fascia, intermuscular septum and bone inside the leg. We could observe spurious noise spikes in the outer layer of the bone primarily due to the MR signal void phenomenon there. Around the fat, the chemical shift of about two pixels occurred obscuring the boundary of the fat region. Future work should include a fat correction method incorporated in the MREIT pulse sequence and improvements in radio-frequency coils and image reconstruction algorithms. Further human imaging experiments are planned and being conducted to produce conductivity images from different parts of the human body.
ISSN:0278-0062
1558-254X
DOI:10.1109/TMI.2009.2018112