Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 71:200208 (2014)

Simultaneous Imaging of Dual-Frequency Electrical

Conductivity Using a Combination of MREIT and MREPT
Hyung Joong Kim,1 Woo Chul Jeong,1 Saurav Z. K. Sajib,1 Min-Oh Kim,2 Oh In Kwon,3
Eung Je Woo,1 and Dong-Hyun Kim2*
Purpose: To propose a single magnetic resonance scan conductivity imaging technique providing dual-frequency characteristics of tissue conductivity.
Methods: Using a modified spin-echo pulse sequence, the
magnetic flux density induced by externally injected currents
and the B1
1 phase map with injected current effects removed
were acquired simultaneously. The low-frequency conductivity
was reconstructed from the measured magnetic flux density
by the projected current density method, while the high-frequency conductivity was reconstructed using the B1
1 maps.
Three different conductivity phantoms were used to demonstrate low- and high-frequency conductivity characteristics.
Results: A conductivity spectrum at two frequencies was successfully acquired with the proposed scheme. Magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography is advantageous for
seeing an anomaly itself wrapped with a thin insulating membrane. In addition, if the membrane is porous, the membrane
property can be quantitatively visualized with magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography. Magnetic resonance
electrical properties tomography does not detect such membranes, which enable it to probe things inside an insulating
membrane.
Conclusion: Considering these pros and cons and also the
fact that the conductivity of biological tissue changes with frequency, a dual-frequency conductivity imaging incorporating
both magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography
and magnetic resonance electrical properties tomography in
future animal and human experiments is suggested. Magn
C 2013 Wiley Periodicals,
Reson Med 71:200208, 2014. V
Inc.
Key words: conductivity spectrum; MREIT; MREPT; conductivity image; magnetic flux density; B1 map

Magnetic resonance (MR)-based mapping of electrical tissue properties is an emerging technique that uses MR to
derive non-invasive information of tissue properties
including electrical conductivity and permittivity (14).

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Korea.

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Yonsei University,
Korea.
3
Department of Mathematics, Konkuk University, Korea.
Grant sponsor: National Research Foundation of Korea; Grant Sponsor:
Korean government (MEST); Grant numbers: 20100018275; 2012009903.
*Correspondence to: Dong-Hyun Kim, Ph.D., Department of Electrical and
Electronic Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. E-mail:
donghyunkim@yonsei.ac.kr
Received 27 October 2012; revised 10 December 2012; accepted 2 January 2013
DOI 10.1002/mrm.24642
Published online 8 February 2013 in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com).
2

C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

V

It can be classified according to two complementary criteria. One is the use of applied currents or applied fields
and the other is the reliance upon surface measurements
or internal data (5,6). Magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT) is a typical technique,
which uses magnetic resonance imaging to measure the
internal data (i.e., magnetic flux density) induced by
externally injected currents (5). In contrast, magnetic resonance electrical properties tomography (MREPT) uses
the spatial sensitivity distributions of the applied Radio
frequency (RF) coils, the B1 field map, without applying
any external currents (6).
MREIT has the advantage of providing conductivity information for biological tissues in what is known to be a
physiologically interesting frequency range. External currents with low frequencies are injected into an imaging
object through a pair of surface electrodes. The induced
magnetic flux density is determined by the current density distribution followed by the BiotSavart law (5,7).
Since the magnetic flux density perturbs the main field
of a magnetic resonance imaging scanner, one can obtain
the z-component of the induced magnetic flux density
(Bz) in the form of an image from the obtained MR phase
images (810). Applying a conductivity image reconstruction algorithm (1114), we can reconstruct a highresolution, high-contrast conductivity image of the imaging object. The current injection is a primary limiting
factor for the practical application of MREIT due to comfort and safety issues (7).
MREPT derives the electric conductivity and permittivity from the spatially sensitive B1 distributions arising
from the applied RF coils, which can be obtained by
mapping the transmit RF field (6,15,16). MREPT does
not use any additional devices such as external electrodes, currents, or RF probes to enhance the feasibility of
the approach (6). In addition, MREPT does not require
the solution of an inverse problem that could compromise spatial image resolution (6,17). Conductivity distributions can be reconstructed to a certain accuracy from
phase images while permittivity distributions can be
reconstructed approximately from magnitude images of
the RF transmit field. However, the sensitivity is relatively poor and the estimate of the conductivity is very
sensitive to noise (1).
It is well known that the aforementioned two methods
provide the electrical conductivities of the human body
at different frequency ranges (16). MREIT provides conductivity images at the low frequency range below 1
kHz, depending on the applied RF rephasing pulses,
while MREPT provides conductivity images in the range
of 10200 MHz, according to the Larmor frequency (1).
Since the biological tissues show frequency-dependent
conductivity spectra (1820), their values at different

200

Simultaneous Imaging of Dual-Frequency Conductivity

frequencies may provide valuable diagnostic information. Several studies have reported unique conductivity
distributions in various phantom, animal, and human
experiments (2,6,2123). These two techniques are,
therefore, complementary and can provide new information when combined. Recently, Minhas et al. (24)
reported experimental results of both MREIT and MREPT
and highlighted their distinct features in probing and
visualizing an object. However, they measured the electrical conductivity of the object from separate MR scans.
Moreover, a direct comparison was not possible, since
the low-frequency conductivity image from the MREIT
data provided only contrast information.
In this study, we propose a simultaneous conductivity
imaging technique providing the dual-frequency characteristics of tissue conductivity from a single MR scan.
We will first describe methods for data acquisition, conversion, and calculation to obtain the magnetic flux density and B
1 map from the k-space data. We will then
present reconstruction procedures for low- and high-frequency conductivity images. Presenting results of various phantom imaging experiments, we will show that
MREIT and MREPT are complementary and suggest
future experimental studies on animals and human
subjects.

201

FIG. 1. A conventional spin-echo based injected-current-nonlinear-encoding pulse sequence for the acquisition of dual-frequency
conductivity images. The imaging currents were injected in the
form of pulses whose timing was synchronized with the RF pulse.

Using the ICNE pulse sequence described in Figure 1,

the MR spectrometer provided complex k-space data S6
corresponding to I and I, respectively:
Z Z
S6 m;n
ra x;y eidx;y e6igBz x;y Tc eixmDkx ynDky dxdy

METHODS
Spin Echo Injected Current Nonlinear Encoding Pulse
Sequence
For the simultaneous imaging of dual-frequency conductivity, we adopted the injected current nonlinear encoding (ICNE) spin-echo pulse sequence, shown in Figure 1,
which is widely used in MREIT imaging experiments
(25). Through a pair of electrodes, current is injected in
the form of pulses whose timing is synchronized with an
RF pulse. The injected current induces a magnetic flux
density B, which produces extra phase shifts. Phase
accumulation is proportional to the z-component Bz of B.
As shown in Figure 1, we sequentially injected positive
and negative currents, I and I, respectively, to cancel
out any systematic phase artifacts of the magnetic resonance imaging scanner. To increase the quality of the
measured Bz data for MREIT, the ICNE method extends
the duration of the injection current until the end of the
read-out gradient to maximize the phase accumulation
by allowing a prolonged current injection. MREPT uses
the spatial sensitivity distributions of the applied RF
coils, which can be extracted from the ICNE acquisition;
hence, there were no particular changes in the MR pulse
sequence.
Extraction of Bz Image and B1 Map
Maxwells equations relate the electric field (E), magnetic
field (Bl0 H), and current density (J):
r  Er ivm0 Hr and r  Hr kr Er Jr [1]
where the admittivity jrixe, and r and e are the conductivity and permittivity, respectively, at the angular
frequency x.

[2]
where qa denotes a term related to the transverse magnetization at a flip angle a, c is the gyromagnetic ratio of
hydrogen and TcTc1Tc2 is the duration of the injected
current (26,27). Additional phase artifacts due to field
inhomogeneity were considered negligible using the spin
echo sequence. At the Larmor frequency of 128 MHz, the
B1 mapping technique provided the positive-rotating
magnetic field information H10.5(HxiHy). In this case,
qa can be expressed as
ra r C1 M0 rH  rsin C2 ajH rjexp iw r

[3]

where C1 and C2 are system-dependent constants and

u1(r) and u2(r) represent the phases of H1(r) and the negative-rotating magnetic field H2(r), respectively. By taking
the two-dimensional discrete inverse Fourier transform,
we can recover the following complex quantities:
idr 6igBz rTc
e
F 1 S6 r:
r6
a r ra re

[4]

By subtraction of the phase terms, we obtained the magnetic flux density Bz(r) created by the externally injected
current at the low frequency. The measured magnetic flux
density Bz satisfies Maxwells equation (Eq. [1]) with the
admittivity j  rL, where the conductivity rL reflects the
low-frequency electrical property responding to the
injected current through the attached electrodes. By summation of the phase terms in Eq. [4], the phase term of H1,
u1, can be measured assuming that u1(r)  u2(r). The accuracy of this assumption depends on many factors
including the object geometry and its dielectric constant,
the field strength, and the RF coil. Here, we used a single
channel transmit and receive birdcage head coil at a field
strength of 3 T, which has been regarded as reasonable for

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Kim et al.

FIG. 2. Schematic diagram showing the data processing for the dual-frequency conductivity imaging. The k-space data were converted
and calculated to obtain the magnetic flux density (Bz) and B1 phase map with proper subtraction or summation of phase information.

the use of the above assumption (1,2,6). The complex

quantity H1 relates to Maxwells equation (Eq. [1]) with
the admittivity jrHixe, where the conductivity rH
reflects the high-frequency electrical property responding
to the RF pulse. Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of
how to extract the magnetic flux density and B
1 phase
map by the subtraction and summation of the phase
terms.

Conductivity Image Reconstruction

From the measured magnetic flux density Bz(r) due to the
transversally injected current into the cylindrical object
V, the projected current JP  rL!u is uniquely determined, where JP is an optimal component of the internal
current density J 5 rL!u caused by the injected current, from the measured z-component Bz data (28,29). The
voltage potential u satisfies the following partial differential equation:
r  sL rrur 0 in V;
 sL rrur  nr g r on @V

[5]

where m is the outward normal vector on the surface and

g is the current density on the surface. The projected
current JPJ0J* is comprised of the background current
density J0 and two-dimensional divergence-free component J*(@b/@y, @b/@x) where J0 5 !a satisfies the harmonic equation
r2 a 0

in V;

ran g

on @V

[6]


 

@ log sL r @ log sL r
1
;
 JxP r; JyP r   r2 Bz r:
@x
@y
m0
[8]
From the relation in Eq. [8] and using two independent injected currents, we can reconstruct the absolute
low-frequency conductivity distribution rL in the object
by solving the matrix system (28).
0
1 0
1
1 2 1
! @ log sL r

r
B

P;1
P;1
z
C B m
C
Jx r Jy r B
@x
0
B
CB
C:
JxP;2 r JyP;2 r @ @ log sL r A @  1 r2 B2 r A
z
m0
@y
[9]
By assuming local homogeneity, i.e., !j  0, the positively rotating field H1 combined with Maxwells equation satisfies
r2 H r  ivm0 krH r:

Equation [10] directly provides a reconstruction formula for the admittivity as

kr  

in V t

[7]

The solved current JP directly relates to the measured

Bz data and the low-frequency conductivity distribution
as follows:

ir2 H r
:
m0 vH r

[11]

By separating the real and imaginary parts of the

recovered j(r), the phase signal of the positive rotating
H1 field inferred from a spin echo imaging technique
dominates the estimation of conductivity rH by (1)
sH r 

and b satisfies the two-dimensional Laplace equation at

an imaging slice Vt:
@ 2 br @ 2 br
1 2

r Bz r
2
2
@x
@y
m0
br 0 on @V t :

[10]

r2 wH r
:
m0 v

[12]

The schematic diagram, which represents the reconstruction procedure of low- and high-frequency conductivity as described above, is shown in Figure 3.

Imaging Experiment
For the imaging experiments, we placed each phantom
inside the bore of our 3 T MR scanner (Achieva TX, Philips

Simultaneous Imaging of Dual-Frequency Conductivity

203

FIG. 3. Image reconstruction procedure of low- and high-frequency conductivities. The low-frequency conductivity was reconstructed
from the measured magnetic flux density by the projected current density method while the high-frequency conductivity was based on
B1 phase field map by estimating the conductivity rH in Eq. [12].

Medical Systems, Best, The Netherlands) with a birdcagetype head coil (Fig. 4a). Using a custom-designed MREIT
current source, we injected the first set of currents I16 with
3-mA amplitude and 30-ms injection time between the horizontal pair of electrodes. After acquiring the first data set
with I16 , the second set of injection currents I26 with the
same amplitude and width were injected through the vertical pair of electrodes (Fig. 4b,c). The image parameters
used were Repetition time/Echo time800/30 ms, Field of
view180  180 mm2, slice thickness4 mm (no gap),
number of averages8, matrix size128  128, number of
slices8, and total scan time60 min.

Phantom Preparation
For the practical approaches of simultaneous dual-frequency conductivity imaging, we prepared an imaging
object called the conductivity phantom, whose conductivity distribution was predetermined and stable over
time. To create a conductivity contrast, we must put at
least two objects with different conductivity values together so that they are physically contacting each other.
In this study, three different conductivity phantoms
were used to understand low- and high-frequency conductivity characteristics. Before the imaging experiments,
we measured the actual conductivity values of each

FIG. 4. Experimental setup for phantom imaging experiment. a: Phantom location inside the MR bore; (b) schematic of a method for
injecting currents I1 and I2 along two different directions; and (c) a picture of injected current synchronized with RF pulse. [Color figure
can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

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Kim et al.

FIG. 5. a: Top view of a conductivity phantom including two agar

objects. The conductivity values
of agar 1, agar 2, and saline were
2.85, 1.10, and 0.20 S/m, respectively. b: MR magnitude image
shows the structural information
of the agar phantom. Four carbon-hydrogel electrodes were
attached to the middle of the cylindrical surface to inject currents
into the phantom. c,d: Reconstructed conductivity images at
low and high frequencies from
MREIT and MREPT data, respectively. [Color figure can be viewed
in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

inclusion with an impedance analyzer (SI1260A, AMETEK Inc., UK) using a four-electrode method.
Agarose Gel Phantom (Phantom A)
We built a cylindrical phantom with a diameter of 13 cm
and height of 16 cm, as shown in Figure 5a. The phantom
was filled with a saline solution having a conductivity of
0.20 S/m (0.3 g/L NaCl and 1 g/L CuSO4). Two cylindrical
agar objects were then positioned inside the phantom and
their conductivity values were found to be about 2.85 S/m
and 1.10 S/m. We attached four carbon-hydrogel electrodes (HUREV Co. Ltd., Korea) on the side of the phantom.
Insulating Film Phantom (Phantom B)
We changed the anomaly from agarose gel to a thin
hollow cylindrical object using an insulating film of cellulose acetate with a thickness of 0.3 mm (30). Two different kinds of insulating films, with and without holes,
were positioned in the phantom as shown in Figure 6a.
In the case of the anomaly with holes, four equally
spaced 3-mm-diameter holes around the objects circumference were aligned with the centers of four carbonhydrogel electrodes. We filled both the inside and outside of the hollow cylinder with the same saline of 0.20
S/m conductivity.
Hybrid Phantom (Phantom C)
The third phantom was a mixture of the two types
described above. Two different kinds of anomalies were

positioned in the phantom (Fig. 7a). One was an insulating film with four equally spaced 5-mm-diameter holes.
The other was an agarose gel object wrapped in a thin
insulating film without holes. The conductivity value of
the agarose gel was 1.10 S/m. After positioning the cylindrical anomalies inside the phantom, we filled phantom
C with the same saline solution used in the other
phantoms.
RESULTS
Agarose Gel Phantom Imaging
Figure 5 shows typical results of the simultaneous dualfrequency conductivity imaging of phantom A. Figure
5a,b show the experimental setup and an MR magnitude
image of the agarose gel together with four carbon-hydrogel electrodes. The present ICNE pulse sequence (25),
which is commonly used in MREIT, provides not only
low-frequency conductivity from MREIT data (Fig. 5c)
but also high-frequency conductivity from MREPT data
(Fig. 5d), simultaneously. Data for the low-frequency
range in Figure 5c were gathered at a 3-mA amplitude
and 30-ms current injection time. We obtained eight
imaging slices from the phantom experiment and reconstructed two-dimensional conductivity images with six
slices. Every six slices showed the same pattern in the
conductivity images. Since the externally injected currents at low frequency could penetrate the agar objects,
we can reconstruct low-frequency conductivity images
from the measured magnetic flux density (Fig. 5c). The
high-frequency conductivity image in Figure 5d is

Simultaneous Imaging of Dual-Frequency Conductivity

FIG. 6. a: Top view of second

conductivity phantom including
two insulating films (cellulose acetate, 0.3-mm thickness) with
and without holes. We filled both
the inside and outside of the hollow cylindrical anomaly with the
same saline having a conductivity
of 0.20 S/m. b: The MR magnitude image shows the structural
information of the insulating films
according to the presence or absence of holes. The arrows indicate 3-mm-diameter holes. c,d:
Reconstructed
conductivity
images at low and high frequencies from MREIT and MREPT
data, respectively.

FIG. 7. a: Top view of hybrid conductivity phantom including an

insulating film with 5-mm-diameter holes and an agar object
wrapped in a thin insulating film.
b: The MR magnitude shows the
structural information of the insulating film with holes (black
arrows). The conductivity of the
wrapped agar object was 1.10 S/
m. c,d: Reconstructed conductivity images at low and high frequencies
from
MREIT and
MREPT data, respectively.

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Table 1
Measured Conductivity Values of Three Different Phantom Experiments
Conductivity [S/m]
Phantom A

Phantom B

Phantom C

Saline solution
Agar 1
Agar 2
Saline solution
Inside a film with holes
Inside a film without holes
Saline solution
Inside a film with holes
Wrapped agar

Actual

Low frequency

High frequency

0.20
2.85
1.10
0.20
0.20
0.20
0.20
0.20
1.10

0.2460.01
2.9360.07
1.0560.03
0.2160.01
0.1060.01
0.0560.01
0.2060.01
0.1560.01
0.0860.01

0.2360.16
2.9260.14
1.0660.11
0.2260.04
0.2360.03
0.2760.03
0.1960.01
0.1860.03
1.0660.05

The absolute conductivity values (means6SD) of the saline solution and anomalies were obtained with a region-of-interest size of 5  5
pixels in both low- and high-frequency conductivity images.

obtained from the B1 phase, which was extracted from

the same k-space data by removing the effect of the injection current. Compared with the background saline solution of low conductivity, the reconstructed conductivity
images of the agar objects show clear contrast in both
low- and high-frequency conductivity images. As for the
conductivity of each inclusion, measured using an impedance analyzer, there was no frequency dependency
in the saline solution. However, the agarose gel showed
increased conductivity at high frequency compared to
low frequency.

the same pattern as described in the results of phantom

B. However, the measured conductivity at low frequency
was higher than that of phantom B due to the larger hole
size. The conductivity changes were closely related to
the diameters of the holes (30). The high-frequency conductivity showed almost the same values inside and outside of the insulating film. Since the wrapped agar
objects appeared as insulators at the low frequency, their
apparent conductivity was markedly lower than its
actual value. In contrast, the high-frequency conductivity
image showed their conductivity values without being
affected by the thin insulating films.

Insulating Film Phantom Imaging

Figure 6 shows the experimental setup, MR magnitude,
and low- and high-conductivity images of phantom B
with and without holes. The hollow cylindrical anomalies with (left in Fig. 6a) and without (right in Fig. 6a)
holes were positioned at the center of the phantom. The
MR magnitude image of the center imaging slice in Figure 6b shows the structural information of the insulating
films according to the presence or absence of holes. In
the case of the insulating film without holes, the hollow
cylindrical anomaly behaved as a solid insulator, since
the injected current at low frequency could not penetrate
the thin insulating wall of the hollow cylinder. In the
film with 3-mm-diameter holes, in contrast, the injected
current at low frequency could partially penetrate the
thin insulating wall through the holes. The low-frequency conductivity image in Figure 6c shows unique
contrasts inside the insulating film depending on the
magnetic flux density created by current flows. Note that
the high conductivity existing around the holes represents high current density due to the concentration of
current flows. In the high-frequency conductivity image
(Fig. 6d), however, there were no changes in conductivity contrast inside and outside of the insulating film,
regardless of the presence or absence of holes.
Hybrid Phantom Imaging
Figure 7 shows the results for phantom C. The phantom
consisted of two different kinds of anomalies including
an insulating film with holes (left in Fig. 7a) and an agar
object wrapped by thin insulating film (right in Fig. 7a).
The insulating film with 5-mm-diameter holes showed

Analysis of Conductivity Images

Table 1 summarizes the quantitative analyses of simultaneous low- and high-frequency conductivity images in
the three different phantom imaging experiments. We
measured the absolute conductivity values of the background saline solution and each anomaly in both lowand high-frequency conductivity images with a regionof-interest (ROI) size of 5  5 pixels. In phantom A,
there were no significant differences among the actual,
low-, and high-frequency conductivity values in each
anomaly. In phantom B, the conductivity values of the
anomaly at low frequencies were lower than its actual
value, while high-frequency conductivity was estimated
to be the same or slightly higher than its actual value.
Specifically, the conductivity of the insulating film without holes appeared much lower than that of the insulating film with holes. In phantom C, the low-frequency
conductivity of the insulating film with holes was estimated to be lower than its actual value, while the highfrequency values were accurate. The conductivity of the
insulating film-wrapped agar object was almost zero at
low frequencies due to the absence of current flow inside
the film. Since the thin films are transparent to the electromagnetic waves at the Larmor frequency of 128 MHz,
the high-frequency conductivity exhibited its actual
value of 1.10 S/m.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Biological tissues include conductive fluids of numerous
ions and heterogeneous membrane structures, which are
important factors for the determination of the electrical

Simultaneous Imaging of Dual-Frequency Conductivity

properties of tissue (3032). The conductivity of a homogeneous conductive fluid is determined by a sum of
products of concentrations and mobility of ions in the
solution (30). The cell membranes are considered insulators having a high capacitance and a low but complicated pattern of conductivity (31). At direct current and
low frequencies, the current passes around the cells. The
internal structures of the cells do not contribute to any
current flow. At high frequencies, the membrane
capacitance allows alternating current to pass. The
membrane effect disappears, and the current flows everywhere according to local ionic conductivity (31,3335).
These frequency-dependent conductivity spectra and values of biological tissues may provide new information
on tissue structure and function that is complementary
to the information provided by traditional magnetic resonance imaging.
In this study, we implemented simultaneous dual-frequency conductivity imaging from a single MR scan.
Using a conventional ICNE pulse sequence, which is
widely used in MREIT studies, we can obtain k-space
data for both MREIT and MREPT. The data are converted
to the magnetic flux density and B1 phase map by the
subtraction or summation of phase information, respectively. Finally, we can reconstruct both low- and highfrequency conductivity images simultaneously. According to our experimental validation using three different
phantoms, we have provided a potential for dual-frequency conductivity imaging.
In phantom A, the reconstructed conductivity images
showed similar patterns for both frequencies. Since the
injected currents passed through the agar anomalies, the
low-frequency conductivity images from the MREIT data
show a clear contrast between the two agar anomalies
with different conductivities. The high-frequency conductivity images from the MREPT data also showed similar contrast. The measured conductivity values from the
anomalies and the background saline solution matched
their actual values well. However, the MREPT results
showed relatively higher standard deviations than the
MREIT due to the inherently poor signal-to-noise ratio
and noise-sensitive characteristics.
The conductivity images of phantom B show quite different patterns between the two methods. Basically, the
insulating membrane behaved as a solid insulator
(30,31). When the phantom included a hollow insulating
cylinder without holes, ions were trapped inside the cylinder. When the hollow cylinder had holes, the ions
were mobile through the holes and these mobile ions
contributed to the current flow throughout the cylindrical anomaly. At low frequencies, the region inside the
membrane appeared as a less conductive region than
the background saline solution, even though they have
the same value of 0.20 S/m. This stems from the fact
that the injected currents did not pass through the insulating film, and thus, there was no magnetic flux density
data inside the insulating film. The relatively high conductivity in the anomaly with holes indicates that the
current partially passed the insulating film through the
holes (30). This current flow contributed to conductivity
image reconstructions. However, the membrane will
eventually become transparent in conductivity images at

207

high frequencies. A low-frequency current will therefore

have a high sensitivity to the membrane itself and to its
leakage, whereas a high-frequency current can penetrate
through the region enclosed by the membrane. We suggest experimental studies in addition to the simulation
studies of saline phantoms that include microscopic
insulating cylinders or spheres with holes to represent
artificial cells. This will allow us to model isotropic or
anisotropic tissues at different scales. We plan to undertake a multi-scale analysis of this kind of cell system
models to understand better the scale-dependent effects
of geometrical factors.
Phantom C was designed to simulate the conductivity
changes of biological tissue associated with the concentration and mobility of ions. At low frequencies, the
region of the hollow cylinder with holes appeared to
have a conductivity contrast with respect to the background even though both regions were filled with the
same 0.20 S/m saline. The relatively higher conductivity
in this phantom with 5-mm-diameter holes compared to
phantom B with 3-mm-diameter holes indicated that the
ion mobility and induced magnetic flux density inside
the holes increased as the hole diameter was enlarged
(30). The hollow cylinder showed the same conductivity
values at high frequencies, since the thin films were
transparent to the electromagnetic wave at the Larmor
frequency of 128 MHz. This situation may be associated
with the tissue condition of having the same ionic concentration and different mobilities between the inside
and outside of a cell membrane. The wrapped agar object
appeared as an insulator in the low-frequency conductivity image, since the injected low-frequency current could
not penetrate the plastic films. In the high-frequency
conductivity image, however, the same wrapped agar
object shows its true conductivity values without being
affected by the thin insulating films. We may apply this
situation to tissue conditions such as having different
ionic concentrations and being immobile between the
inside and outside of a membrane.
It is well known that the low-frequency conductivity
results from MREIT data provide scaled conductivity
images providing only contrast information due to the
limitations of the harmonic Bz algorithm (22,23,36). In
this study, we applied a new MREIT reconstruction algorithm using the projected current density method for
absolute conductivity quantification (28,29). However,
further experimental validation in animal and human
models, together with technical progress, are needed,
including a rigorous analysis and an improved method
to increase stability (29). On the other hand, high-frequency conductivity results from MREPT data enable the
quantitative analysis of absolute conductivity despite
their somewhat large deviations due to technical limitations (1,2). In terms of diagnostic decisions, the relative
conductivity contrast will provide an indication that tissues with different cellular structures exist. However, if
the information is to be used for the interpretation of
electrical activity such as tumor detection, or electrosurgery planning such as RF ablation, then absolute values
may be more important.
In this article, we proposed a simultaneous dual-frequency MR-based conductivity imaging method

208

combining MREIT and MREPT. From a single MR scan,

we presented experimental results of both MREIT and
MREPT and highlighted their distinct features in probing
and visualizing an object. The MREIT is advantageous in
seeing an anomaly itself, if it is wrapped with a thin
insulating membrane. If the membrane is porous, MREIT
will also be able to visualize the membrane properties
quantitatively. Although MREPT fails to see such membranes, it is able to probe the contents inside an insulating membrane. As an example, some biological tissues
such as muscle and white matter are anisotropic at low
frequencies but they become isotropic at high frequencies above 10 MHz. MREIT is potentially capable of sensing the effects of tissue anisotropy. Considering these
pros and cons and the fact that the conductivity of a
biological tissue changes with frequency, we suggest a
dual-frequency conductivity imaging incorporating both
MREIT and MREPT in future animal and human
experiments.
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