A feasibility study for electrical impedance tomography as a means to monitor tissue electroporation for molecular medicine.

Molecular medicine involves the introduction of macromolecules, such as drugs or gene constructs, into specific cells of the body. Electroporation, which uses electric pulses to permeate cell membranes, is a method for achieving this. However, as with other molecular medicine procedures, it lacks a real-time mechanism to detect and control which cells have been affected. We propose and demonstrate, via computer simulation, that electrical impedance tomography has the potential for detecting and imaging electroporation of cells in tissue in real-time, thereby providing feedback for controlling electroporation.