Abstract
Electrical impedance spectroscopy is a minimally invasive technique that has clear advantages for living tissue characterisation owing to its low cost and ease of use. The present paper describes how this technique can be applied to breast tissue classification and breast cancer detection. Statistical analysis is used to derive a set of rules based on features extracted from the graphical representation of electrical impedance spectra. These rules are used hierarchically to discriminate several classes of breast tissue. Results of statistical classification obtained from a data set of 106 cases representing six classes of excised breast tissue show an overall classification efficiency of ∼92% with carcinoma discrimination >86%.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brown, B. H., Barber, D. C., Morice, A. H., andLeathard, A. D. (1994). ‘Cardiac and respiratory related electrical impedance changes in the human thorax’,IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng.,BME-41, pp. 729–734
Campbell, A. M., andLand, D. V. (1992): ‘Dielectric properties of female breast tissue measuredin vitro at 3.2 GHz’,Phys. Med. Biol.,37, pp. 193–210
Duda, R., andHart, P. (1973): ‘Pattern classification and scene analysis’ (Wiley, New York)
Foley, D. H. (1972): ‘Considerations of sample and feature size’,IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, IT-18, pp. 618–626
Foster, K. R., andSchwan, H. P. (1989): ‘Dielectric properties of tissues and biological materials: a critical review’,CRC Crit. Reviews Biomed. Eng., 17, pp. 25–104
Fukunaga, K. (1972). ‘Introduction to statistical pattern recognition’ (Academic Press, New York and London)
Gersing, E., Schäfer, M., andOsypka, M. (1995): ‘The appearance of positive phase angles in impedance measurements on extended biological subjects’ in Proc. ‘CAIT Workshop on Electrode-Skin Interface in EIT’,Innov. Techn. Biol. Med.,16, (Special Issue 2), pp. 72–76
Heinitz, J., andMinet, O. (1995): ‘Dielectric properties of female breast tumors’ in Proc. ‘9th Int. Conf. Electrical Bioimpedance’, (University of Heidelberg Press), pp. 356–359
Henderson, R. P., andWebster, J. G. (1978). ‘An impedance camera for spatially specific measurements of the thorax’,IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., BME-27, pp. 250–254
Jossinet, J. (1996): ‘Variability of impedivity in normal and pathological breast tissue’,Med. Biol. Eng. Comput.,34, pp. 346–350
Jossinet, J. (1998): ‘The impedivity of freshly excised human breast tissue’,Physiol. Meas.,19, pp. 61–75
Jossinet, J., andLavandier, B. (1998): ‘The discrimination of excised cancerous breast tissue samples using impedance spectroscopy’Bioelectrochem. Bioenerg.,45, pp. 161–167
Kubicek, W. G., Patterson, R. P., andWitsoe, D. A. (1970): ‘Impedance cardiography as a noninvasive method of monitoring cardiac function and other parameters of the cardiovascular system’,Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sciences,170, pp. 24–732
Morimoto, T., Kinouchi, Y., Iritani, T., Kimura, S., Konishi, Y., Mitsuyama, N., Komaki, K., andMonden, Y. (1990): ‘Measurement of the electrical bio-impedance of breast tumors’,Eur. Surg. Res.,22, pp. 86–92
Raudys, S., andPikelis, V. (1980): ‘On dimensionality, sample size, classification error and complexity of classification algorithm in pattern recognition’,IEEE Trans. Patt. Anal. Mach. Intel., PAMI-2, pp. 242–252
Shapiro, S. S., Wilk, S. S., andChen, S. W. (1968): ‘A comparative study of various tests for normality’,J. Am. Stat. Ass.,63, pp. 1343–1372
Swain, P. H. (1977): ‘The decision tree classifier: design and potential’,IEEE Trans. Geosci. Electronics, GE-15, pp. 142–147
Schwan, H. P. (1959): ‘Alternating current spectroscopy of biological substances’,Proc. IRE,47, pp. 1841–1855
Surowiec, A. J., Stuchly, S. S., Barr, J. R., andSwarup, A. (1988): ‘Dielectric properties of breast carcinoma and the surrounding tissues’,IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., BME-35, pp. 257–263
Tachibana, S., Aguilar, J. A., andBirzis, L. (1970): ‘Scanning the interior of living brain by impedography’,J. of Appl. Physiol.,28, pp.534–539.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Estrela da Silva, J., Marques de Sá, J.P. & Jossinet, J. Classification of breast tissue by electrical impedance spectroscopy. Med. Biol. Eng. Comput. 38, 26–30 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02344684
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02344684