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The investigation of processes of ischemia in different organ tissues is very important for the development of methods of protection and preservation during surgical procedures. Electrical impedance spectroscopy was used to distinguish between different tissues and their degree of ischemia. We describe mathematical methods used to adjust experimental data to Cole-Cole models for one-circle and two-circle impedance loci and a study of the main parameters for representing the behavior of ischemia in time. In vivo and in situ postmortem measurements of different tissues from pigs are shown in the 100 Hz to 1 MHz range. The Cole parameters that best characterize the ischemia are R0 and fc.

Magnetic induction tomography (MIT) is a contactless method for mapping the electrical conductivity of tissue by measuring the perturbation of an alternating magnetic field with appropriate receiver coils. Reconstruction algorithms so far suggested for biomedical applications are based on weighted backprojection, hence requiring tube-shaped zones of sensitivity between excitation coils and receiving coils, the sensitivity being essentially zero outside this 'projection beam'. This condition is met for conducting perturbations in empty space and for some special configurations of insulators in saline. In biological structures, however, perturbations with low conductivity contrast are embedded into a bulk conductor. The respective sensitivity distribution was investigated and quantified theoretically and experimentally by displacing a conducting (agar, 8 S m(-1)) and an insulating sphere within a saline tank (4 S m(-1)). In contrast to the case in the empty space the sensitivity is not confined to a tube but even increases outside the 'projection beam'. The difference can be explained by the interaction of bulk currents with the perturbing object. This effect invalidates backprojection and hence the solution of the complete inverse eddy-current problem is suggested.

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A current source suitable for application in electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is described. The first stage of the commercially available current-feedback amplifier AD844 constitutes a current-conveyor implementation and allows the construction of wide-bandwidth current sources, thus avoiding the mismatching and temperature-induced problems that arise in discrete realizations. The lack in gain accuracy of this circuit is overcome by the inclusion of its input buffer in an operational amplifier (op amp) feedback loop. Saturation problems that appear when placing a DC-blocking capacitor between the source and the electrode are solved by a DC feedback that maintains DC voltage at the output near to 0 V without reducing the output impedance of the source. Two AC-coupled current sources, in both inverting and non-inverting configurations, are described and their possible applications to EIT are listed.