Ulrich Katscher1,
Hiroyuki Abe2, Marko K. Ivancevic3, Karim Djamshidi1,
Philipp Karkowski1, Gillian M. Newstead2
1Philips
Research Europe, Hamburg, Germany; 2Medical Center, University of
Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States; 3MR Clinical Science, Philips
Healthcare, Cleveland, OH, United States
According to ex vivo studies, breast tumors exhibit a significantly altered electric conductivity. This feature opens the chance to increase the specificity of breast tumor characterization with MRI. The electric conductivity can be measured in vivo using Electric Properties Tomography (EPT). Due to the complex frayed structure of fat and ductile tissue in the breast, an EPT reconstruction algorithm dedicated for breast tissue was developed, which is applied in this study to eight breast cancer patients. The study tries to contribute to the discussion if breast tumor conductivity can be measured reliably with EPT, aiming for future tumor malignancy staging.