256-Channel Trans-Admittance Scanner with Lesion Estimation Algorithm for Breast Cancer Detection

256-Channel Trans-Admittance Scanner with Lesion Estimation Algorithm for Breast Cancer Detection

Breast cancer detection using electrical impedance techniques is based on numerous experimental findings that cancerous tissues have higher electrical conductivity values than normal tissues. Lately, by taking advantage of the structure of current flows underneath a planar probe of array electrodes, a mathematical formula to find lesions from a measured trans­admittance map has been derived. In order to experimentally validate its mathematical analysis and the suggested lesion estimation algorithm, we developed a 256-channel trans-admittance scanner (TAS) for probing anomalies underneath a planar array of electrodes. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of the TAS. Its performance together with the lesion estimation algorithm was evaluated using saline phantoms. Further studies are proposed to validate the system on human subjects.