Combined ultrasound and transrectal electrical impedance imaging of the prostate

A novel imaging method to detect prostate cancer and the clinical findings is presented in this study. The dual modal imaging system incorporates a transrectal ultrasound system and an electrical impedance tomography (EIT) system. The reconstructed electrical property image (EPI) is correlated with semi-quantitative pathological findings. An example of reconstructed EPI is also presented in this study. Additionally, at lower frequencies of 0.4 kHz, 3.2 kHz and 25.6 kHz, statistical tests suggest that the conductivity of cancerous regions is significantly greater than that of normal region (p<0.0304). The preliminary clinical findings point to potential electrical impedance measuring applications for prostate cancer detecting.