Electrical impedance imaging based on ultrasonic B-mode image

This paper presents electrical impedance imaging based on ultrasonic B-mode image for detecting breast tumor. In the proposed system, a thin film with sixteen electrodes was pasted on the surface of the ultrasound probe. The proposed system allows both the electrical conductivity image by sixteen film electrodes and ultrasound image by the ultrasonic probe at same area. The electrical conductivity image is improved by using ultrasound image as the prior information. In the simulation and experiment, the electrical conductivity distribution at the simple breast model was reconstructed by the proposed system. The comparison between the electrical images with and without the ultrasound image as the prior information was presented. As results, it was found that the electrical conductivity distribution was clearly improved by using ultrasonic image as the prior information although the proposed system must be improved.