Development of electrical impedance tomography

The works on development of electrical impedance tomography started in Russia in the 90s of the last century. A group of scientists from the Institute of Radiotechnology and Electronics of the Russian Academy of Science (director — an academician, professor, an honoured worker of science and technology, Doctor of Physico-Mathematical Science Guliaev Yu. V.) comprising Doctor of Science (Physics and Mathematics) Cherepenin V.A., Candidate of science (Physics and Mathematics) Korzhenevskiy A.V., Candidate of science (Physics and Mathematics) Kornienko V.A. and others in 1997 — 1998 were able to solve a mathematical problem of imaging internal tissues of human body utilizing electrical impedance tomography.

Their efforts resulted in development of a pilot model of the device for diagnostics of the mammary gland, which was later handed over to Karpov A.Yu,, doctor of the higher category, head of the perinatal department of the Clinical Hospital # 9 in Yaroslavl, whose painstaking work allowed him to develop medical basics of electrical impedance mammography.



Head of the medical department
of the OOO PKF “SIM-technika” (ltd),
originator of the medical principles
of the electrical impedance
mammography Karpov A.Yu.

The first variant of the diagnostic device was called “The Electrical Impedance computer Mammograph EIM-003 “Korvet”. The electrical impedance mammograph “MEIK” was covered by the patent of the Russian Federation No. 2153285 and No. 2127075, as well as the USA patent No. 6,167,300 and No. 6,236,886. The invention, which forms the basis of the device, was awarded a golden medal at the World�s Fair of Inventions in Brussels at the exhibition “Eureka '99”.



In 2003 PKF “SIM-technika” on the basis of the OAO “Yaroslavl Radio Works” set up commercial production and manufactured the first batch of the electrical impedance computer mammograph “MEIK” (version 3.0).

The device underwent a successful period of testing and trials at the All-Russia Research Centre for X-ray and Radiology of the Ministry of Public Health in Moscow and at the Regional Oncology Centre of the 9th clinical hospital of Yaroslavl..

After obtaining the relevant approval documentation, starting from 2003 the electrical impedance mammography “MEIK”® has been used in medical practice at various medical institutions of Russia, the CIS, as well as in the countries of Europe and Asia.

Scientific and research work conducted by the PKF “SIM-technika” with involvement of mathematicians for the Yaroslavl State Demidov University as well as programmers and specialists in electronics from the Scientific and Production Enterprise “Spetspribor” enabled SIM-technika to start production from April 2007 of the 5th version of the device. This version differs from the previous modes by high degree of protection from noise and interference, perfect circuit design, high reliability in operation; in addition a fundamentally new software was developed as well, which was highly appreciated by doctors.

The electronics of the devices underwent principle alterations (the electrical circuit, isolation of printed circuit boards, power supply of active components; a block for preliminary filtration of signals from interference, noises and stray conductor-to-conductor flow of current; in addition, thanks to gold electroplating of the circuit boards and current-carrying parts, the jump potentials on the boarder of dissimilar metals was minimized).

As the production testing of the pilot batch of “MEIK”® proved, the abovementioned steps facilitated achievements of the following positive effects:

1. Elimination of noises and disturbances, which overlaying the main signal, led to deterioration of the obtain mammograms resolution capability, sometimes completely degrading the image.
2. Absence of need for calibration since stability of the obtained images and their numeric derivative characteristics are inbuilt into the electronic circuit itself.
3. Existence of independent channels (injecting and measuring) with individual power supply from the secondary sources DC-DC of the THI type with high insulation resistance and low level of interference make the device extremely reliable and electrically safe.
The software for the device (version 5.0) enables the user to perform the following:
to monitor correct positioning of the electrode matrix on the breast;
to control the procedure of measurement, data processing and archiving;
to change the image parameters (colour scale, contrasting, noise filtering, image softening, a 3-D layer-specific image);
to analyze electrical conductivity distribution, frequency distribution of electrical conductivity;
to assist the doctor in the process of diagnostics (automatic prompting).


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