**Diagnostic System in Electrical Impedance Mammography: Background Mammography: Background**

**Diagnostic System in Electrical Impedance** 

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.69195

Alexander Karpov, Andrey Kolobanov and Marina Korotkova Marina Korotkova Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Alexander Karpov, Andrey Kolobanov and

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.69195

**Abstract**

Electrical impedance mammography (EIM) belongs to nonlocal techniques of image creation. It is based on a number of data collection methods, including the cross-sectional approach, the back-projection method with the weight function applied horizontally and vertically, and the static image method. The analysis of data acquired by applying the above methods enabled to work out the EIM diagnostic system. It involves the following diagnostic categories: structural percentile limits and the mammary gland structure, agerelated percentile limits and age-related electric conductivity, outlying values statistics and early diagnostics of breast cancer, D-statistics and distortion of the mammographic scheme in the presence of breast cancer, diagnostic table, and the assessment of the electrical impedance image.

**Keywords:** electroimpedance mammography, breast cancer, high-risk group

### **1. Introduction**

Modern academic research and clinical practice avail of various tomography systems of electrical impedance diagnostics [1–7]. Electrical impedance mammography (EIM) represents one of the most rapidly developing imaging modalities designed for breast cancer detection [8–22].

EIM belongs to noninvasive techniques of image creation. It measures electromagnetic phenomena and assesses their changes via external scanning.

Since electric current distribution is not limited by two-dimensional plane, the data obtained reflect the change of electric conductivity in three-dimensional space, thus providing for the

layer-by-layer image of the object. Based on the reconstruction of internal distribution from a set of external points, EIM refers to tomography techniques of image construction.

There exist two types of techniques creating tomographic images: local and nonlocal. The local technique implies the passage of one direct ray through the body causing the creation of one pixel in the image. The pixel value depends solely on the substance that the ray meets on its way. X-ray, magnetic resonance, and positron emission all belong to local or hard-field tomography techniques.

The nonlocal technique is characterized by all points on the object affecting the measurement result. This is the so-called cross measurement. The pixel value depends both on the object structure and the structure of the surrounding tissues. Electrical impedance, ultrasound reflection, and optical tomography belong to the category of nonlocal or soft-field tomography techniques.

Thus, EIM is a noninvasive technique featuring nonlocal properties of tomographic image creation.
