Abstract
This issue of Physiological Measurement follows ICEBI'04: 12th International Conference on Electrical Bio-Impedance joint with EIT: 5th Electrical Impedance Tomography Conference which took place in Gdansk, Poland on 20–24 June 2004. The conference provided an opportunity for researchers from all over the world to present their latest findings in the fields of bio-impedance, (di)electrical properties of biological tissues and EIT applications. The combined conference provided a unique opportunity for researchers from both fields to share their research findings across a wider community. This conference follows the successful fourth conference on Biomedical Applications of Electrical Impedance Tomography, held at UMIST, Manchester in April 2004. Plans are already in place for the next EIT conference in London (2006) and XIII ICEBI in Graz (2007). The commitment of the bio-impedance and EIT communities shows that the state of both fields is still healthy, with new researchers joining the communities each year.
A record number of more than 230 participants from 33 countries decided to participate in the meeting in Gdansk and proposed more than 200 original presentations. The scientific committee of the conference carefully reviewed all submissions, selecting around 90 papers for oral and a similar number for poster presentations. Extended four page abstracts were published in the conference proceedings (two volumes, each of ∼400 pages) and also on a CD. The main topics were: bio-impedance basics—cells, tissues and organs; standards; electrodes and instrumentation; theory and modeling; applications; and also all aspects of EIT, including reconstruction algorithms and non-biomedical applications. Additionally six plenary papers and eight tutorial lecture summaries have been published. In this issue the best 29 papers, additionally prepared in extended form and carefully reviewed for Physiological Measurement, are published covering the most important topics of the conference.
Papers that were presented at the conference give a good picture of development in electroimpedance methods, including tomography and biomedical applications. They show a continual increase in the number of scientists working in this specific field as well as the inception of biomedical research in several research groups and centers. The extensive research in the field of electrical bio-impedance during the last 20 years is resulting in the implementation of methods in clinical practice and other applications; however, the general acceptance of electroimpedance methods is still limited. One of the main aims of the conference was the discussion of how to increase the trust and understanding of the value of electroimpedance in general medical practice and how to attract work in this field to put it on an even higher level. There are some basic limitations of this technology—the main ones are limited spatial resolution of EIT and low specificity of the method. The main advantages are the non-invasive character of investigation, easy use and low cost of instrumentation, allowing both in vivo and real time measurements. Some new development trends are visible, such as non-contact methods, including inductive probes and investigation of the electroimpedance properties of tissues exposed to ultrasonic or magnetic fields; MREIT, bringing together EIT and magnetic resonance imaging; and inductively coupled systems for EIT. Another important field of new applications is brain and head visualization. Still a great challenge is EI-mammography for fast and safe screening. Some other applications of EIT such as the evaluation of prostate cancer treatment by hyperthermia may be of great practical value in clinics.
It was also encouraging to see new methods for reconstructing the images in EIT presented at the conference. The importance of improved algorithms cannot be underestimated as they play a key role in bringing this area closer to clinical applications.
The future of EIT and bio-impedance still looks healthy, as demonstrated by the collection of papers in this special issue, which provides evidence of significant advances in all areas of these research fields.