Current approaches to analogue instrumentation design in electrical impedance tomography.

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a novel medical imaging method, which allows reconstructed tomographic images of the internal impedance of a subject to be made with the use of a ring of electrodes. High precision impedance measurements are needed, because the image reconstruction process is ill-conditioned and small errors in measurement can lead to large errors in the final image. In practice, there are formidable instrumentation problems, due to the interaction of finite current drive output impedance, recording amplifier common mode rejection, and unequal skin-electrode impedances. A number of different EIT systems have been constructed or are under development. These employ differing strategies, such as additional electrodes, multiple electrode current injection, or recording at multiple frequencies, to improve image accuracy. This paper reviews the nature of the instrumentation problems and the designs employed by differing groups in attempting to overcome them.