Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2011 Oct;30(10):1771-8. doi: 10.1109/TMI.2011.2147328. Epub 2011 Apr 25.
Electroporation is a phenomenon caused by externally applied electric field of an adequate strength and duration to cells that results in the increase of cell membrane permeability to various molecules, which otherwise are deprived of transport mechanism. As accurate coverage of the tissue with a sufficiently large electric field presents one of the most important conditions for successful electroporation, applications based on electroporation would greatly benefit with a method of monitoring the electric field, especially if it could be done during the treatment. As the membrane electroporation is a consequence of an induced transmembrane potential which is directly proportional to the local electric field, we propose current density imaging (CDI) and magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT) techniques to measure the electric field distribution during electroporation. The experimental part of the study employs CDI with short high-voltage pulses, while the theoretical part of the study is based on numerical simulations of MREIT. A good agreement between experimental and numerical results was obtained, suggesting that CDI and MREIT can be used to determine the electric field during electric pulse delivery and that both of the methods can be of significant help in planning and monitoring of future electroporation based clinical applications.
电穿孔是一种现象，当细胞受到足够强度和持续时间的外加电场作用时，会导致细胞膜对各种分子的通透性增加，而这些分子原本没有运输机制。由于精确地将组织覆盖在足够大的电场中是电穿孔成功的最重要条件之一，因此基于电穿孔的应用将极大地受益于一种监测电场的方法，特别是如果在治疗过程中可以进行监测的话。由于细胞膜电穿孔是诱导跨膜电位的结果，而跨膜电位与局部电场成正比，因此我们提出电流密度成像（CDI）和磁共振电阻抗断层成像（MREIT）技术来测量电穿孔过程中的电场分布。研究的实验部分采用了短高压脉冲的 CDI，而研究的理论部分则基于 MREIT 的数值模拟。实验结果和数值模拟结果之间的良好一致性表明，CDI 和 MREIT 可用于确定电脉冲传递过程中的电场，并且这两种方法都可以在未来基于电穿孔的临床应用的规划和监测中提供重要帮助。
