Electrical conductivity estimation from diffusion tensor and T2: a silk yarn phantom study

S. H. Oh, S. Y. Lee, M. H. Cho, T-S. Kim, I. H. Kim Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Yongin, Kyungki, Korea, Republic of Introduction Information about electrical conductivity distribution inside biological tissues is useful for many biomedical studies. Especially, conductivity mapping of a human brain would play great roles to enhance accuracy of EEG or MEG source localization for brain function studies. Even though EIT (Electrical Impedance Tomography) could provide conductivity images of the human body, EIT seems not practical for human brain imaging due to its poor sensitivity and low spatial resolution. Tuch et al. introduced a theory that the low frequency electrical conductivity tensor of biological tissues has strong correlation with the diffusion tensor of water molecules inside the tissues [1]. Pelal et al. reported that there is strong correlation between the water molecule diffusion coefficient and the transverse relaxation time constant in frog sciatic nerve tissues and the correlation comes from the compartmental structure of the neuronal tissues [2]. In this study, we have experimentally shown the cross-property relation among electrical conductivity, diffusion, and T2, using a silk yarn phantom.