On the Measurement of Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) of the Human Head.

Abstract

We are introducing a system for Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) measurements for future use in Neurological Intensive Care Unit (NICU) settings. The system consists mostly of commercially available components and the software was developed in Labview (National Instruments). The system is based on the principle that acute hemorrhagic stroke may produce detectable changes in the impedance spectrum measured on the subject's scalp due to parenchimal local increases of blood volume. EIS measurements were performed on four healthy control subjects to establish a baseline for a real time stroke detector. Measurements were performed using white noise currents in the 0-50 kHz frequency band using ten shielded electrodes placed on a subject's scalp, with electrical potentials measured with a large-dynamic range for increased EIS accuracy. EIS measurements yielded highly symmetrical impedance spectra, which was only obtainable using the proposed continuos spectral electrical impedance estimation.