Optimal combination of electrodes and conductive gels for brain electrical impedance tomography

Background Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is an emerging imaging technology that has been used to monitor brain injury and detect acute stroke. The time and frequency properties of electrode–skin contact impedance are important for brain EIT because brain EIT measurement is performed over a long period when used to monitor brain injury, and is carried out across a wide range of frequencies when used to detect stroke. To our knowledge, no study has simultaneously investigated the time and frequency properties of both electrode and conductive gel for brain EIT. Methods In this study, the contact impedance of 16 combinations consisting of 4 kinds of clinical electrode and five types of commonly used conductive gel was measured on ten volunteers’ scalp for a period of 1 h at frequencies from 100 Hz to 1 MHz using the two-electrode method. And then the performance of each combination was systematically evaluated in terms of the magnitude of contact impedance, and changes in contact impedance with time and frequency. Results Results showed that combination of Ag + /Ag + Cl − powder electrode and low viscosity conductive gel performed best overall (Ten 20 ® in this study); it had a relatively low magnitude of contact impedance and superior performance regarding contact impedance with time ( p < 0.05) and frequency ( p < 0.05). Conclusions Experimental results indicates that the combination of Ag + /Ag + Cl − powder electrode and low viscosity conductive gel may be the best choice for brain EIT.