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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, VOL. 54, NO.

7, JULY 2007 1321

Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy


of the Human Prostate
Ryan J. Halter*, Member, IEEE, Alex Hartov, Senior Member, IEEE, John A. Heaney,
Keith D. Paulsen, Member, IEEE, and Alan R. Schned

AbstractTissue electrical impedance is a function of its ar- to lung cancer [1]. The 5-year relative survival rate for all
chitecture and has been used to differentiate normal and cancer cancers found while still confined to the prostate approaches
tissues in a variety of organs including breast, cervix, skin, and 100% due to the effectiveness of treatment procedures such as
bladder. This paper investigates the possibility of differentiating
normal and malignant prostate tissue using bioimpedance spectra. brachytherapy and radical prostatectomy which are typically
A probe was designed to measure impedance spectra over the administered in these situations to prevent metastasis [1].
range of 10 kHz to 1 MHz. The probe was fully characterized using Detecting prostate tumors early is, therefore, beneficial to in-
discrete loads and saline solutions of different concentrations. creasing the total survival rate associated with their occurrence.
Impedance spectra of five ex vivo prostates were measured in the The two most widely accepted screening methods for
operating room immediately following radical prostatectomy.
Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare the normal and prostate cancer are serologic measurement of prostate-specific
malignant findings. The impedance probe had a signal-to-noise antigen (PSA) concentrations and digital rectal examination.
ratio (SNR) 84 dB across the entire spectrum and measured Although capable of detecting a high percentage of cancers,
a tissue volume of approximately 46 mm3 . At 10 kHz, prostate these screening methods are limited [2]. Cancer screening using
conductivity ( ) ranged from 0.232 S/m to 0.310 S/m for tumor and
measurements of PSA concentrations has led to a dramatic
from 0.238 S/m to 0.901 S/m for normal tissue. At 1 MHz the ranges
were 0.301 S/m to 0.488 S/m for tumor and 0.337 S/m to 1.149 S/m increase in incidence rates and concomitantly radical local
for normal. Prostate permittivity ( r ) ranged from 6.64 104 to therapies [3], however there is no clear evidence screening
1.25 105 for tumor and from 9.08 104 to 4.49 105 for normal increases survival rates [4], [5]. In addition, overdiagnosis as
tissues at 10 kHz. And, at 1 MHz the r ranges were 9.23 102 a result of screening has contributed to an increased number
to 1.88 103 for tumor and 1.16 103 to 2.18 103 for normal
tissue. Both and r of tumor tissue were found to be significantly
of procedures that are perhaps unnecessary since a large pro-
lower than that of normal tissue (P 0 0001). Conductivity and portion of these cancers may never reach a stage of clinical
permittivity are both higher in normal prostate tissues than they significance [6], [7]. Although the clinical value of the method
are in malignant tissue making them suitable parameters for tissue is still being debated, the sensitivity and specificity of PSA
differentiation. This is in agreement with trends observed in other screening have been reported to be in the ranges of 70%80%
tissues reported in much of the literature. Expanded studies are
needed to further validate this finding and to explore the biological and 60%70% , respectively [8]. Digital rectal examinations
mechanism responsible for generating the results. is limited to detecting palpable cancers in the posterior and
lateral aspects of the gland, where only 85% of cancers arise
Index TermsCancer screening, electrical impedance spec-
troscopy, prostate cancer, tissue electrical properties. [9]. Sensitivity and specificity of digital rectal examinations
have been reported to be 59% and 94%, respectively [10].
Bioimpedance is a property related to a tissues resistance to
I. INTRODUCTION electrical current flow and its ability to store electrical charge.
It is predominantly a function of tissue architecture including
P ROSTATE cancer is the most widely diagnosed malig-
nancy in males. In 2005, 232 090 new cases and 30 350
deaths were attributed to the disease, which was second only
cellular size and density, cellular spacing, and the constituents of
the extracellular matrix (ECM). Impedance differences between
tissue types may be markers for pathologic processes such as
cancer. In fact, Skourou et al. [11] have shown that a tissues
Manuscript received April 28, 2006; revised October 21, 2006. This work was
supported in part by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and National Cancer
impedance signature may be more sensitive to the presence of
Institute under Grant NIH-NCI PPG P01CA080139-06A2. Asterisk indicates tumor tissue than conventional imaging techniques of computed
corresponding author. tomography (CT) and ultrasound. Use of electrical impedance
*R. J. Halter is with the is Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, signatures to differentiate normal and neoplastic states has been
Hanover, NH 03755 USA (e-mail: ryan.halter@dartmouth.edu).
A. Hartov is with the Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, reported in studies of cervical [12], breast [13], skin [14], and
Hanover, NH 03755 USA. He is also with the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, bladder tissues [15].
Lebanon, NH 03766 USA. Prostate cancers are typically found in the peripheral zone of
J. A. Heaney is with the Department of Urology, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Med-
ical Center, Norris Cotton Cancer Center, Lebanon, NH 03766 USA. the gland and constitute a dense arrangement of cancerous ep-
K. D. Paulsen is with the Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, ithelial cells often in the form of small, infiltrating glands with
Hanover, NH 03755 USA. He is also with the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical a proportionate decrease in stromal volume [16]. These mor-
Center, Lebanon, NH 03766 USA, and Norris Cotton Cancer Center, Lebanon,
NH 03766 USA.
phological differences between normal and malignant prostate
A. R. Schned is with the Department of Pathology, Dartmouth-Hitchcock tissue along with the known sensitivity of electrical impedance
Medical Center, Lebanon, NH 03766 USA. spectra to cellular structure prompted Lee et al. [17] to consider
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online using tissue bioimpedance as a measure for distinguishing the
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TBME.2007.897331 disease. In a small series of 6 subjects, the Lee study showed that

0018-9294/$25.00 2007 IEEE


1322 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, VOL. 54, NO. 7, JULY 2007

the resistance of prostate cancer was higher than normal tissue


but the investigators did not otherwise account for geometric in-
fluences on the data or evaluate the capacitive differences in the
two tissue types (i.e., normal versus malignant).
In this paper, we present a study of electrical impedance
spectra in freshly excised prostate specimens. As part of the
effort, we constructed, validated and experimented with a coax-
ially configured probe used in conjunction with an impedance
analyzer to record bioimpedance measurements on prostates in Fig. 1. Coaxial impedance probe. Scale in centimeters.
the operating room immediately following radical prostatec-
tomy. The investigation reports on the design and performance
analysis of the impedance probe, the procedure for obtaining
impedance measurements on freshly excised prostate tissues,
and the results and implications of the findings. This paper ex-
tends the data of Lee et al. by accounting for geometrical factors
associated with the measurement probe and sampling volume
to convert resistive and reactive recordings into intrinsic tissue
property spectra which might be of diagnostic significance.

II. BIOIMPEDANCE RELATIONSHIPS


Tissue bioimpedance, , can be determined by applying an
alternating (ac) voltage, , between two electrodes and mea-
suring the ensuing current, . The ac version of Ohms law,
, can be used to relate and to the bioimpedance of the
tissue sample influenced by the electric field established be-
tween the electrodes. Complex bioimpedance, , combines re-
sistive and reactive components, , where Fig. 2. Impedance magnitude and phase measured with the probe connected to
discrete resistors of 740
, 1 k
, and 2.7 k
.
is the imaginary number. Alternatively, one can express a com-
plex admittance, , consisting of a conductance and capac-
itance such that , where is the radian fre-
where and are the distance between the two plates and their
quency . Admittance is the reciprocal of impedance,
area, respectively. For different spatial arrangements the geom-
, and and are related to and as
etry factor can be determined analytically or experimentally. An
(1) experimental technique involves measuring the impedance of a
known load such as de-ionized (DI) water and calcu-
lating using (4).
and

(2) III. IMPEDANCE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM


A custom designed impedance probe constructed from a
, , , and are parameters that depend on the config- 4-cm- long piece of rigid coaxial cable with an inner conductor
uration and geometry of the measurement probe used to make diameter of 1 mm and an outer diameter of 3.5 mm was interfaced
the impedance recordings. Conductivity, , and relative permit- to an HP4284A impedance analyzer through a set of 4 shielded
tivity, , are related to and , but are geometry-independent cables (Fig. 1). The wiring was configured for bipolar impedance
parameters that are typically used to report impedance proper- measurements between the central and outer conducting ele-
ties. In general, describes a tissues ability to allow electric ments of the probe. A 1-V potential difference was established
current to flow and has the units of S/m, while describes a between these two elements and maximum currents were limited
tissues relative charge storage capability and is unitless. Con- to 10 mA. Control software interfacing a personal computer with
ductivity is related to conductance as the impedance analyzer was developed to record resistance
and reactance values of impedance at 20 discrete frequen-
(3) cies logarithmically spaced from 10 kHz to 1 MHz. Before any
impedance measurements were made the system was calibrated
where is a geometry factor associated with the probe config- in both a short and open configuration. The short configuration
uration. Likewise, the relationship between relative permittivity consisted of directly connecting the inner and outer conductors
and capacitance is together to determine systemic residual impedances, while the
open configuration consisted of leaving both conductors un-
(4) connected to determine parasitic impedances. The calibration
factors were stored locally in the impedance analyzer and the
where is the permittivity in free space, 8.85 . measurements recorded were adjusted accordingly before
In the well known case of a parallel plate geometry, , transmission to the interface computer.
HALTER et al.: ELECTRICAL IMPEDANCE SPECTROSCOPYOF THE HUMAN PROSTATE 1323

Fig. 3. Conductivity and permittivity of different concentrations of saline solution. Measurements are in agreement with Gabriels published values [19].

Fig. 4. TS measurements. (a) Measured impedance as a function of probe distance from bottom of saline tank (0.07 M NaCl). Vertical line shows the TS associated
with a  change of less than 0.1%. (b) TS of the impedance probe in different concentrations of saline solution.

Probe signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was determined by ob- M NaCl. In addition, the impedance spectrum of a volunteers
taining a set of 100 measurements with a 1 load resistor tongue is shown. The impedance values are comparable to those
connected between the inner and outer conducting elements reported by Gabriel et al. [19] in which a different type of probe
of the probe. The SNR was found to vary from 89.6 dB at 10 was used.
kHz to 84.9 dB at 1 MHz, which corresponds to a noise level
of 0.0033% and 0.0056% at the two frequencies, respectively. IV. PROBE SAMPLING VOLUME
Further testing with discrete resistors verified that the calibra- We use probe sensitivity to describe the volume of tissue
tion procedure removed the parasitic impedances properly and that influences the impedance measurements. Radial sensitivity
the measured impedance values were accurate. Fig. 2 shows (RS) is defined as the area parallel to the probe surface that in-
the magnitude and phase of impedances measured with discrete fluences the data; it includes the area directly under the probe as
resistors of 740 , 1 , and 2.7 . The phase shift is load well as the region outside the probe edge where fringing effects
dependent and for impedances equivalent to tissue ( ) is may occur. Transverse sensitivity (TS) describes the depth along
less than 1 at 1 MHz. the axial direction of the probe that influences the impedance re-
The probe geometry factor was determined experimentally sult. Final probe sensitivity is defined as the product of the area
by measuring the capacitance, , at 100 kHz while the probe tip of RS and depth of TS.
was submerged in DI water. A central frequency of 100 kHz was RS and TS were both measured experimentally by inserting
chosen to limit the effect of polarization which occurs at lower the probe in a beaker of saline and translating the probe from
frequencies [18] and minimize the small parasitic phase shifts the edge of the beaker towards the center (RS measure) and
occurring at the highest frequencies. Impedance measurements from the bottom of the beaker upwards (TS measure). The edge
were subsequently recorded for saline solutions of varying NaCl and bottom of the beaker represent nonconductive boundaries
concentrations and the geometry factor was used in conjunc- preventing the flow of current. Impedance measurements varied
tion with (1)(4) to calculate the conductivity and permittivity by less than 0.5% as the probe was translated inward from the
spectrum of each solution. The impedance spectra are shown edge of the beaker, demonstrating that the fringing effects are
in Fig. 3 for concentrations ranging from 0.01 M NaCl to 0.09 minimal and that the field lines are contained within the area
1324 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, VOL. 54, NO. 7, JULY 2007

Fig. 6. Histological slide of prostate tissue from case PR002. Normal tissue is
visible on the left side of the image and prostatic adenocarcinoma dominates the
right side.

of the sliced prostate to provide a visual distribution of tumor


throughout the sectioned tissues.
The above protocol was conducted on five patients after
receiving approval from the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical
Center internal review board. Table I lists the patient character-
Fig. 5. View of the equipment and measurement setup in the OR. istics and pathology results for each of the five cases. Each of
the specimens probed had prostatic adenocarcinoma confirmed
at the sites indicated by the surgeon. Fig. 6 shows an example
described by the probe circumference. TS measurements are of a representative microscopic field taken from case PR002.
shown in Fig. 4(a) for a 0.07 M NaCl solution. We define the The left side of the image shows normal tissue while the right
TS as the distance from the bottom of the beaker at which the side exhibits adenocarcinoma. Reduced gland size, an increase
change in impedance varies by less than 0.1%. This approach in the epithelial cell density, and a significant loss of stroma are
was used to determine the TS for different concentrations of visible in the area of the adenocarcinoma with respect to the
saline and these results are shown in Fig. 4(b). As an example, normal tissue. The Gleason score reported is a combination of
the probe sensitivity for a load having an impedance of 0.3 S/m the Gleason grades assigned to the dominant and nondominant
is approximately 23 ( , ). tumor patterns observed.
VI. RESULTS
V. MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUE
Five data sets were collected on each side of the prostate
Spectroscopic impedance measurements were made on for each of five patients resulting in a total of 50 recorded
whole prostates removed from patients following a laparo- impedance spectra between 10 kHz and 1 MHz. Each data set
scopic procedure. Recordings were acquired directly in the collected was transformed from - to - data through use
operating room (OR) not more than 10 min after the prostate of (1)(4) and averaged for a given location. The average
was removed. The impedance probe was pressed against the spectra are shown in Fig. 7, plotted in the complex plane. The
area designated by the surgeon as cancer and five data sets were notch frequency impedances occurring at the minimum
recorded. After probing the tumor volume, a second set of five appear as circles.
measurements were recorded on the contralateral lobe of the The averaged conductivities and permittivities for measure-
prostate, symmetric to the position of the tumor. Sets of five ments obtained at both the tumor site and the symmetric loca-
measurements were acquired at each location to allow us to tion on the contralateral lobe are shown in Fig. 8 for all five pa-
verify the repeatability of our measurements. Fig. 5 shows the tients. The maximum variation between the five repeated mea-
probing procedure and configuration in the OR. surements at each location was less than 6% with respect to the
The prostate was then transported to the Pathology Depart- mean value for all data sets collected.
ment where it was serially sectioned transversely from apex to Cumulative mean values of conductivity and permittivity for
base at 3-mm intervals. The 3-mm apical slice was then seri- both tumor and normal tissue types are shown in Fig. 9 along
ally sectioned parasagitally, perpendicular to the apical resec- with the variability between measurements reported as standard
tion margin. Histological type and Gleason grade and score were deviations. The large variation in the normal data set is due to
assigned to the tumor along with any additional findings. Tumor the large values of and measured for the normal side of case
foci were outlined on the microscopic slides by the patholo- PR005. Conductivity ranges for low (10 kHz), mid (113 kHz),
gist, and these outlines were then traced onto a stylized diagram and high (1 MHz) frequency data are indicated in Table II.
HALTER et al.: ELECTRICAL IMPEDANCE SPECTROSCOPYOF THE HUMAN PROSTATE 1325

TABLE I
PATIENT CASE PATHOLOGY

Fig. 7. RX spectra of both normal and tumor sites for all five cases. Circles represent the minimum jXj value and are the impedances at the notch frequency for
each case.

Fig. 8. Averaged conductivity and relative permittivity spectra for tumor and normal prostate tissues. Dashed lines signify normal tissue and solid lines signify
tumor tissue.

The conductivity difference between tissue types (normal No significant correlations were found between the histolog-
versus tumor) was found to increase with increased signal ical assessments and measured impedance data due to the lim-
frequency from an average of 0.046 S/m at 10 kHz to 0.078 ited number of samples collected and the approximate co-local-
S/m at 1 MHz. In contrast, permittivity differences were found ization between the impedance and histological measurements.
to be much larger at lower frequencies, having an average
difference of 37 387.3 at 10 kHz and 67.8 at 1 MHz. Wilcoxon VII. DISCUSSION
signed-rank tests were used to compare the differences in data The observed increase in conductivity and decrease in
between tumor and contralateral sides for full spectral data sets permittivity with increasing frequency (Fig. 8) is consistent
. When the entire frequency spectrum was analyzed with reports for other tissues [20]. At low signal frequencies,
both and of tumor tissue were found to be significantly polarized cellular membranes act as charge storage devices
lower than that of normal tissue . (high ) and barriers to ionic conduction (low ). As signal
1326 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, VOL. 54, NO. 7, JULY 2007

TABLE II
MEASURED IMPEDANCE RANGES AT EACH DECADE

of the prostate. Impedance measurements of normal tissue were


recorded on the contralateral lobe of the prostate, symmetric to
the position of the tumor for each patient; this was not the same re-
gion within the prostate for all patients. It is interesting to note that
there is a much smaller variation in the measurements of tumor
and that each of these were confirmed by histology to be ade-
nocarcinomas. Despite this overlap, the intrapatient differences
still show significant separation between tumor and normal im-
pedances (Fig. 8). Multiple measurements taken from different
locations within the prostate may provide a means to determine
regions of higher impedance associated with tumor.
Different tissue morphological changes associated with
the transition from normal to malignant diagnosis have been
reported to cause varying degrees of change in the measured
impedance spectra. Brown et al. [12] found the low-frequency
resistance in normal cervical tissue to be higher than that of
Fig. 9. Average parameter values for both tumor and nontumor measurements. cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. They suggest that in normal
Error bar variability presented as a single standard deviation. (a) Conductivity. cervical epithelium current travels around the tight cellular
(b) Permittivity. layers present taking a long resistive path, whereas in cervical
neoplasia the cell layering is absent and extracellular pathways
frequency increases, the polarization effect relaxes and less shorten, leading to a decrease in extracellular impedance.
charge is stored at the extracellular-intracellular interface (low Others, however, have reported normal tissues having higher
) and the impedance to current flow through this interface admittance than cancerous tissues [15], [17], [22], [23]. As an
decreases (higher ). example, Jossinet and Schmitt [23] used a four-point probe to
The spectrum of a single tissue type typically follows collect impedance spectra over the range of 0.488 kHz to 1 MHz
a circular arc that intersects the R-axis at low-frequency and in a study of 120 excised samples of breast tissue. The samples
high-frequency resistances and has a characteristic included glandular (MG), connective (CT), adipose (AT),
frequency at the top of the arc (maximum ). The shape mastopathy (MA), fibradenoma (FA), and carcinoma (CA)
of the arc is dependent on the tissue impedance and these pa- tissue types. Reported low frequency conductivity ranges were
rameters can be extracted through a fitting process [21]. Inter- (MG), (CT),
estingly, our measurements were inverted with respect to the (AT), (MA), (FA), and
usual case and instead we report a notch frequency at the (CA). With the exception of connective
minimum . Da Silva et al. [21] noted that multiple superim- and adipose tissue, carcinoma was found to have the lowest
posed arcs or incomplete ones are typically obtained in practice conductivity consistent with our findings in the prostate.
because of the presence of multiple relaxation time constants In the only other reported study of electrical bioimpedance
and the limited frequency range usually acquired. They show of human prostate tissue [17], a needle probe was used. The
examples of impedance spectra of breast tissue exhibiting seg- group found that the resistance of prostate tumor was higher than
ments of inverted arcs similar to the data we have obtained for that of normal tissue which agrees with the results we obtained
prostate tissue. Expanding the frequency range and decreasing ( ). Because measurements of resistance are dependent
the volume of probe sensitivity may allow for a more refined on the probe geometry, their results are not directly compa-
characterization of prostate impedance spectra. rable with our findings. However, by taking the ratio of tumor
Although the small sample size in this investigation limits sta- conductivity to normal tissue conductivity we can compare our
tistical power, both the conductivity and permittivity for normal results with the same ratio from the Lee et al. measurements.
tissue are significantly higher than that of tumor tissue in all five These ratios are similar for comparable frequencies of 100 kHz
cases. The lower 10 frequencies for patient PR004 are the only ex- and 1 MHz as reported in Table III. Interestingly, their reactive
ception to this trend. The conductivity and permittivity ranges for measurements provided no useful information, whereas our data
tumor and normal tissue overlap considerably between patients suggests that the differences in permittivity between normal and
(Fig. 9), making selection of an absolute threshold for differenti- neoplastic tissue is significant especially at the lower frequencies
ation difficult. This overlap arises from the interpatient variability and may be used to differentiate tissue pathologies. Since the
in the impedance of normal tissue. This is due to: 1) natural vari- range of measurements significantly overlaps between patients,
ability between patients; 2) variability within different regions the ratios expressed in Table III may provide a meaningful
HALTER et al.: ELECTRICAL IMPEDANCE SPECTROSCOPYOF THE HUMAN PROSTATE 1327

TABLE III
COMPARISON OF DATA TO LEE et al. [17]

diagnostic for differentiating tumor from normal tissue within modalities for enhanced tissue differentiation or may be used
an individual patient. The results from this study and Lee et al. in conjunction with a trans-rectal ultrasonic probe to aid in
suggest a possible threshold of 0.8 for the ratio of conductivities. locating areas of suspicion during prostate biopsy procedures.
An expanded study is, however, necessary to determine how sen-
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