Resistor mesh model of a spherical head: part 1: applications to scalp potential interpolation.

A resistor mesh model (RMM) has been implemented to describe the electrical properties of the head and the configuration of the intracerebral current sources by simulation of forward and inverse problems in electroencephalogram/event related potential (EEG/ERP) studies. For this study, the RMM representing the three basic tissues of the human head (brain, skull and scalp) was superimposed on a spherical volume mimicking the head volume: it included 43 102 resistances and 14 123 nodes. The validation was performed with reference to the analytical model by consideration of a set of four dipoles close to the cortex. Using the RMM and the chosen dipoles, four distinct families of interpolation technique (nearest neighbour, polynomial, splines and lead fields) were tested and compared so that the scalp potentials could be recovered from the electrode potentials. The 3D spline interpolation and the inverse forward technique (IFT) gave the best results. The IFT is very easy to use when the lead-field matrix between scalp electrodes and cortex nodes has been calculated. By simple application of the Moore-Penrose pseudo inverse matrix to the electrode cap potentials, a set of current sources on the cortex is obtained. Then, the forward problem using these cortex sources renders all the scalp potentials.

Resistor mesh model of a spherical head: part 2: a review of applications to cortical mapping.

A resistor mesh model (RMM) has been validated with reference to the analytical model by consideration of a set of four dipoles close to the cortex. The application of the RMM to scalp potential interpolation was detailed in Part 1. Using the RMM and the same four dipoles, the different methods of cortical mapping were compared and have shown the potentiality of this RMM for obtaining current and potential cortical distributions. The lead-field matrices are well-adapted tools, but the use of a square matrix of high dimension does not permit the inverse solution to be improved in the presence of noise, as a regularisation technique is necessary with noisy data. With the RMM, the transfer matrix and the cortical imaging technique proved to be easy to implement. Further development of the RMM will include application to more realistic head models with more accurate conductivities.

Ex vivo discrimination between normal and pathological tissues in human breast surgical biopsies using bioimpedance spectroscopy.

Ex vivo bioimpedance data measured on normal and cancerous female breast tissues are reported. They clearly show that the electrical properties of normal tissues, surrounding tissues, and carcinoma are different. These differences lie in the conductivity, in the characteristic frequency (frequency of the maximum of the imaginary part of the bioimpedance), and also in the shape of the Bode plots. Modeling using an R-S-Zcpe model is reported as well as indexes extracted from the real and imaginary parts of the bioimpedance. Even if a classification of the different types of tissues remains a difficult task and leads to much less precise diagnosis than microscopic examination, the electrical behavior of mammary tissue could be used to develop a noninvasive technique for early breast cancer detection.

A multifrequency serial EIT system.

A multifrequency (1 kHz-1 MHz) serial electrical impedance tomography (EIT) system has been developed. It is based on 16 active electrodes and can be extended up to 32. Each active electrode can be programmed for current driving and for measuring either the injected current or the voltage difference between adjacent electrodes, and includes calibration facilities. Real and imaginary parts of the impedance are obtained by applying a parametric identification method (extended Prony), but other techniques are easily adaptable. Image reconstruction is carried out using the Sheffield filtered back-projection algorithm. Characteristic frequency images are under development and should be of great interest to distinguish between normal and tumorous tissues.

Parametric modelling for electrical impedance spectroscopy system.

Three parametric modelling approaches based on the Cole-Cole model are introduced. Comparison between modelling only the real part and modelling both the real and imaginary parts is carried out by simulations, in which random and systematic noise are considered, respectively. The results of modelling the in vitro data collected from sheep are given to reach the conclusions.

Bioelectrical impedance techniques in medicine. Part I: Bioimpedance measurement. Second section: impedance spectrometry.

Electrical impedance spectrometry is an important application field of bioimpedance measurements. After introducing the electrical properties of biological tissues, this part presents instrumental aspects and applications of electrical impedance spectrometry. The main instrumental constraints encountered in spectrometric electrical impedance measurements are reviewed, focusing on low-frequency applications. Examples of impedance cells and probes are presented and several instrumental setups operating in the frequency and time domain are described. Some examples of applications are presented, including in vitro characterization and modeling of normal tissues, in vitro and in vivo characterization of cancerous tissues, and assessment of tissue perfusion/ischemia levels.

Bioelectrical impedance techniques in medicine. Part III: Impedance imaging. First section: general concepts and hardware.

Measurement accuracy is a key point in impedance imaging and is mainly limited by factors that take place in the acquisition system. This part is a review of hardware solutions developed in acquisition systems for electrical impedance tomography (EIT). The general principles of EIT along with the changes that have taken place in the last decade, in terms of measurement strategy, and a certain number of definitions are introduced. The major hardware error sources that occur in the front end of EIT systems are presented. A review of the various alternatives published in the literature that are used to drive current, including current and voltage approaches, and the main solutions recommended in the literature to overcome the key point drawbacks of voltage measurement systems, including voltage buffers, instrumentation amplifiers, and demodulators, are provided. Some calibration procedures and approaches for the evaluation of the performance of EIT systems are also presented.

Bioelectrical impedance techniques in medicine. Part II: Monitoring of physiological events by impedance.

The measurement of a physiological event caused by a change in dimension, conductivity, or permittivity can be easily carried out by the impedance technique, requiring only the application of two or more electrodes, which are easy to apply. In some cases, the impedance is transformed into its resistive and reactive components, in others the total impedance is measured. In certain cases only a change in impedance, with or without separation into its components, contains enough information to be correlated to the physiological event. Recent measurements of physiological data by impedance techniques have reemphasized the value of the painless and harmless acquisition from human and animal subjects in such diverse domains as manned spacecraft, nutrition, and electrical impedance imaging. This part attempts to present all the numerous experiments performed on humans to estimate changes in volume, orientation, and distribution of fluids and tissues accompanying physiological activity. The main sections concern the respiratory system, the cardiovascular system, the brain, the total body impedance, muscle and skin impedance, and bacteriometry.

Bioelectrical impedance techniques in medicine. Part III: Impedance imaging. Second section: reconstruction algorithms.

This section is devoted to the reconstruction algorithms published in the literature and developed for reconstructing the electrical conductivity and permittivity inside a body from measurements made on the body surface. These algorithms fall into two main categories. The first, based on linear approximations, are noniterative methods assuming that conductivity does not differ very much from a constant. Examples of noniterative methods are the Barber-Brown back-projection method and related methods, the Calderon's approach, the moment method, and one-step Newton methods. The second class of methods consists of iterative methods, which typically include output least squares for various functions. A related class includes the adaptive methods, in which the applied patterns of current are adjusted to get the best signal. A review of all these different alternatives is presented.

Bioelectrical impedance techniques in medicine. Part III: Impedance imaging. Third section: medical applications.

In several areas of clinical medicine, electrical impedance tomography could offer significant advantages over existing methods. These advantages have been supported by preliminary studies or by validation studies, which are described. The suggested applications are reviewed in this section. They mainly concern developments in impedance variations on brain, lung (neonatal, edema, emphysema), and heart; changes in blood volume, gastrointestinal system (gastric emptying, gastroesophageal reflux, pharyngeal transit time); pelvis (pelvis congestion); and thermal mapping in hyperthermia and breast (tissue characterization). The conductivity information at one frequency in a pixel is insufficient to take into account the very complex physiological mechanisms that underlie the observed impedance changes. To gain a better understanding of these mechanisms, research is currently being carried out on imaging of the imaginary part, parametric imaging, spectroscopic imaging, and 3D imaging, which are developed at the end of this section.

3D reconstruction in electrical impedance imaging using a direct sensitivity matrix approach.

This paper represents a reconstruction algorithm using a direct sensitivity matrix (DSM) approach for fast 3D image reconstruction in electrical impedance imaging. The boundary element method (BEM) is used in the construction of this matrix. The first images of a conductivity perturbation inside a sphere are reconstructed, using theoretical data.

In vitro tissue characterization and modelling using electrical impedance measurements in the 100 Hz-10 MHz frequency range.

In vitro electrical impedance spectrometry was performed on tissue samples excised from sheep. Measured data have been processed to reduce dispersion in measurements and to provide criteria useful for tissue comparison. Two electrical models are proposed for tissues exhibiting a one-circle impedance locus and a two-circle impedance locus. Measurement results and electrical parameters of tissues and models fitted to experimental data are presented. Model sensitivity to parameter variations is discussed.

A direct sensitivity matrix approach for fast reconstruction in electrical impedance tomography.

In electrical impedance imaging, several proposed reconstruction algorithms have employed the concept of a sensitivity matrix, which can be used to relate the magnitude of a boundary voltage change of a 2D object to the change in conductivity inside the object that has given rise to it. The search for an appropriate inversion of the sensitivity matrix is the key to these algorithms. In this work, a method called the direct sensitivity matrix (DSM) approach for fast image reconstruction is proposed. Both theoretical and experimental results showing the efficiency of this proposed method are also presented.

Tissue characterization by impedance: a multifrequency approach.

Two experimental set-ups for in vitro characterization of electrical bio-impedance are described. The first one, based on a commercially available instrument, operates in the frequency range 1 Hz-10 MHz. The second one uses an identification process and operates in the frequency range 1 Hz-1 MHz. Some results are presented and discussed in the context of multifrequency electrical impedance tomography.

Using the Hilbert uniqueness method in a reconstruction algorithm for electrical impedance tomography.

This paper presents a new version of the layer stripping algorithm in the sense that it works essentially by repeatedly stripping away the outermost layer of the medium after having determined the conductivity value in this layer. In order to stabilize the ill posed boundary value problem related to each layer, we base our algorithm on the Hilbert uniqueness method (HUM) and implement it with the boundary element method (BEM).

Experimental acquisition system for impedance tomography with active electrode approach.

An experimental system for impedance tomography has been constructed. The acquisition system uses 16 multifunctional active electrodes, each including a current source and a voltage buffer. Images of active and reactive parts of different target impedances in a phantom filled with liquid have been obtained. The system performance has been compared with those of other systems using either a mesh phantom or rods as point sources used for the determination of the modulation transfer function.

[Binocular coordination during reading]. / La coordination binoculaire pendant la lecture.

Is there an effect on binocular coordination during reading of oculomotor imbalance (heterophoria, strabismus and inadequate convergence) and of functional lateral characteristics (eye preference and perceptually privileged visual laterality)? Recordings of the binocular eye-movements of ten-year-old children show that oculomotor imbalances occur most often among children whose left visual perceptual channel is privileged, and that these subjects can present optomotor dissociation and manifest lack of motor coordination. Close binocular motor coordination is far from being the norm in reading. The faster reader displays saccades of differing spatial amplitude and the slower reader an oculomotor hyperactivity, especially during fixations. The recording of binocular movements in reading appears to be an excellent means of diagnosing difficulties related to visual laterality and to problems associated with oculomotor imbalance.

Conductivity interface modelling with dipoles by means of optimal control and boundary element methods in impedance tomography.

Optimal control techniques have been combined with Alessandrini's singular perturbation method and Wexler's algorithm to reconstruct images in impedance imaging. We have also considered an integral formulation of the potential problem, which has led us to introduce an array of dipoles whose position, orientation and length can be optimised to model the conductivity discontinuities.