Magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography at 3 Tesla field strength.

Magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT) is a recently developed imaging technique that combines MRI and electrical impedance tomography (EIT). In MREIT, cross-sectional electrical conductivity images are reconstructed from the internal magnetic field density data produced inside an electrically conducting object when an electrical current is injected into the object. In this work we present the results of electrical conductivity imaging experiments, and performance evaluations of MREIT in terms of noise characteristics and spatial resolution. The MREIT experiment was performed with a 3.0 Tesla MRI system on a phantom with an inhomogeneous conductivity distribution. We reconstructed the conductivity images in a 128 x 128 matrix format by applying the harmonic B(z) algorithm to the z-component of the internal magnetic field density data. Since the harmonic B(z) algorithm uses only a single component of the internal magnetic field data, it was not necessary to rotate the object in the MRI scan. The root mean squared (RMS) errors of the reconstructed images were between 11% and 35% when the injection current was 24 mA.

Electrical conductivity imaging by magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT).

Magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT) is a recently developed imaging technique that combines MRI and electrical impedance tomography (EIT). In MREIT, cross-sectional electrical conductivity images are reconstructed from the internal magnetic field density data produced inside an electrically conducting subject when an electrical current is injected into the subject. In this work the results of an electrical conductivity imaging experiment are presented, along with some practical considerations regarding MREIT. The MREIT experiment was performed with a 0.3 Tesla MRI system on a phantom made of two compartments with different electrical conductivities. The current density inside the phantom was measured by the MR current density imaging (MRCDI) technique. The measured current density was then used for conductivity image reconstruction by the J-substitution algorithm. The conductivity phantom images obtained with an injection current of 28mA showed conductivity errors of about 25.5%.