Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a promising visualization technique with low hardware cost, which reconstructs the conductivity change inside a domain from the voltage change on the boundary [1]. EIT has the potential to evaluate the effect of electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) on human muscles [2,3], where EMS is being expected to replace physical exercises of human body in the future. However, the EIT image has low accuracy [4], which restricts the accurate reconstruction of muscle compartments and the quantitative evaluation of EMS effect [5,6]. To increase the reliability of quantitative evaluation of EMS, the reconstruction accuracy of muscle compartments needs to be improved.
EIT reconstructs the image by matching the measured voltage change Δ
To reduce
Under these circumstances, a new voltage approximation model for conductivity reconstruction is proposed, which is called the “object-oriented sensitivity matrix estimation model (OO-SME model)”. The OO-SME model is derived by linearizing
The objectives of this study are (1) to propose the OO-SME model for conductivity reconstruction with high accuracy, (2) to reconstruct the lean meat in meat sample accurately as a mimic reconstruction of muscle compartment, and (3) to evaluate the mass of lean meat quantitatively from the reconstruction.
The approximation error
where Δ
where
where
and used to optimize
The OO-SME model is derived by linearizing
where
the voltage
Replacing
Compared to the existing linear and nonlinear models,
Fig. 1 shows the flowchart of conductivity reconstruction with the OO-SME model, which includes two steps. In the first step, an initial conductivity change Δ
Fig. 1
Flowchart of conductivity reconstruction with the OO-SME model.

In the 1st step of reconstructing Δ
Δ
In the 2nd step of reconstructing Δ
Thirdly, reconstruct Δ
To stabilize the ill-posed conductivity reconstruction model, the matching between Δ
where ‖
Fig. 2 shows a mesh, the conductivity of the background-field, and the object-fields in the simulation. Fig. 2(a) is a 2D mesh with the following parameters: diameter
Fig. 2
Mesh, conductivity of background- and object-fields

To obtain the voltages
where
The solution of
Regularization is used in (9a) and (9b) to stabilize the conductivity reconstruction [20], in which regularization matrix ‖
Different ‖
The Noser regularization term of
where
where
Regularization factor
where δ
where
where Δ
where
In the second-order sensitivity model,
In the OO-SME model,
The relative accuracy (
where
Fig. 3 shows the voltage change Δ
Fig. 3
Voltage changes of different objects in the simulation.

Fig. 4 shows the reconstructed conductivity Δ
Fig. 4
Reconstructed conductivity based on different conductivity reconstruction models in the simulation. (a) Object-fields; (b) Linear model; (c) Sensitivity updating model; (d) Second-order sensitivity model; (e) OO-SME model.

Fig. 5 shows
Fig. 5
Comparison of

Fig. 6 shows the experimental setup of an EIT system, which consists of 4 parts, a personal computer (PC), an impedance analyzer, a digital multiplexer, and an EIT sensor. The impedance analyzer is IM3570 made by Hioki. The multiplexer is made based on Arduino, which has 16 channels to switch on and off between different electrode-combinations for current-stimulation and voltage-measurement. The sensor is a polylactic acid-made circular tank printed with a 3D printer. The diameter of the tank is
Fig. 6
Experimental setup of EIT system

As shown in Fig. 6, the PC controls the signals to trigger the impedance analyzer and switch on and off the channels on the multiplexer. The impedance analyzer generates a current signal on two output channels (HC and LC) to stimulate the target and measures the voltage signal from the target via two input channels (HP and LP), from which the impedance of the target is calculated. The multiplexer chooses 4 of 16 channels to stimulate the current and measure the voltage, the electrode-combinations for current-stimulation and voltage-measurement in the experiment are the same as in the simulation.
The experiment is conducted as follow. At first, the impedance from the background-field and the object-field are measured. Then, the voltages of background-field
In the experiment, the meat sample from pig rump was used. The background-field is fat. The object-field is a lean meat mass enclosed by fat. The conductivity of fat and lean meat are
Fig. 7 shows the voltage change Δ
Fig. 7
Voltage changes of different objects in the experiment.

Fig. 8 shows the reconstructed conductivity
Fig. 8
Reconstructed conductivity based on different conductivity reconstruction models in the experiment. (a) Object-fields; (b) Linear model; (c) Sensitivity updating model; (d) Second-order sensitivity model; (e) OO-SME model.

Fig. 9 shows
Fig. 9
Comparison of

Due to the approximation error
Fig. 10
Comparison between ΔU* and

The approximation error
As expressed by (2),
Fig. 11
Comparison of components of

Omitting the change of
Fig. 12 shows the comparison of sensitivity matrix with different conductivity reconstruction models in the simulation, where the sensitivity of each element from all electrode-combinations are collected. Fig. 12(a) shows the conductivity of object-fields. Fig. 12(b), (c) and (d) show
Fig. 12
Comparison of sensitivity based on different conductivity reconstruction models in the simulation. (a) Object-field; (b) S

Fig. 13 shows the comparison of the sensitivity matrix in the experiment, where the sensitivity of each element from all electrode-combinations are collected. Fig. 13(a) shows the object-field. Fig. 13(b), (c), and (d) show
Fig. 13
Comparison of sensitivity based on different conductivity reconstruction models in the experiment. (a) Object-field; (b) S

The conductivity reconstruction based on the OO-SME model has high accuracy to evaluate the measurement object quantitatively, which improves the reliability of EIT application in the biomedical field, such as evaluation of effect of EMS on muscle compartments. In this study, the lean meat mass enclosed by fat is accurately reconstructed by the proposed OO-SME model, the relative accuracy
The approximation error in the OO-SME model proposed in this study is eliminated compared to the existing models. The reconstructed conductivity from the OO-SME model has higher accuracy to reflect the shape and size of measurement object.
The lean meat mass in meat sample is accurately reconstructed by the OO-SME model, from which the lean meat mass could be quantitative evaluated.
The relative accuracy of lean meat mass from the reconstructed conductivity based on the OO-SME model reaches up to 83.98% in the simulation and 54.60% in the experiment. The reconstruction has a higher reliability to evaluate the lean meat mass quantitatively.
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