Feasibility of Breast MREIT Conductivity Imaging for Cancer Detection: Experimental and Numerical Simulation Studies

Hyung Joong Kim¹, Saurav ZK Sajib¹, Woo Chul Jeong¹, Young Tae Kim¹, Tong In Oh¹, Eung Je Woo¹

Conductivity values of cancerous tissues in the breast are significantly higher than those of surrounding normal tissues, breast MREIT may provide a new noninvasive way of detecting early stage of breast cancer. As a step toward clinical application, we present results of experimental and numerical simulation studies of breast MREIT. From phantom experiments, we evaluated practical amounts of noise in measured Bz and built a realistic three-dimensional model. Simulation results are promising to show that we can detect a cancerous anomaly in the breast while restricting the maximal current density inside the heart below the level of nerve excitation.