Monitoring of Electric Field Distribution during Electroporation by Means of MREIT: From Concept to Experiments

Monitoring of electroporation process presents one of the most important aspects towards safe and efficient use of electroporation in clinical procedures such as electrochemotherapy and non-thermal irreversible electroporation. Various methods of monitoring electroporation process were already suggested, particularly of irreversible electroporation where immediate changes of tissue properties can be detected. However, monitoring of reversible electroporation is more demanding task since there are almost no immediate visible physical changes in treated tissue. As accurate coverage of the tissue with a sufficiently large electric field presents one of the most important conditions for successful electroporation, we proposed a method for determining electric field distribution during electroporation based on magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT). We demonstrated that MREIT can be used to determine electric field distribution during electroporation in agar phantoms,

ex vivo

tissues and

in silico

. In this study we briefly explain the concept of monitoring electric field during electroporation using MREIT and present key evaluation results of its feasibility.