Biophysical Enhanced Electrical impedance Tomography LEveraging morphology and physiology (BEETLE)

• Applicant: Dr. Alberto Battistel
• Subject Area: Biomedical Systems Technology ; Medical Physics, Biomedical Technology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 567888280

Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) requires only electrical measurements, making it a safe, non-invasive, and non-harmful medical imaging technique often used to monitor patient ventilation. Despite containing signals related to hemodynamics that are useful for calculating the perfusion-ventilation ratio, the link between perfusion and EIT response is not well understood. Additionally, EIT suffers from low image resolution due to the ill-posed inverse problem associated with image reconstruction. The "Biophysical Enhanced Electrical Impedance Tomography Leveraging Morphology and Physiology (BEETLE)" project aims to enhance resolution and information extraction in EIT by utilizing additional prior knowledge in the inverse problem. Specifically, the different impedance spectra of various tissues and blood will be used as biophysical fingerprints through multifrequency image reconstruction. Morphological knowledge, derived from available CT and MRI scans, and physiological models will provide spatial and temporal information for the inverse problem. BEETLE takes an integral approach to optimizing EIT through several key innovations: 1. Application-Specific Hardware Adaptation: Recovering broadband information about tissue frequency spectra. 2. Novel Image Reconstruction Methods: Utilizing morphological and physiological prior knowledge to improve accuracy. 3. Advanced Functional Image Information Extraction: Developing methods to extract and visualize functional information from reconstructed images. 4. Visualization of enhanced functional images and specific metrics. 5. Verification and Evaluation: Ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the proposed methods through rigorous testing and evaluation. This comprehensive approach aims to significantly improve the resolution and clinical applicability of EIT, benefiting patient care and enhancing the utility of this important diagnostic tool.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Belgium
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Knut Möller; Professor Dr. Stefan J. Rupitsch
• Cooperation Partner: Professor John Lataire, Ph.D.