Electrical biopsy of irradiated intestinal tissue with a simple electrical impedance spectroscopy system for radiation enteropathy in rats--a pilot study.

Electrical impedance is one of the most often used parameters for characterizing material properties, especially in biomedical applications. Electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), used for revealing both resistive and capacitive characteristics, is good for use in tissue characterization. In this study, a portable and simple EIS system based on a commercially available chip was used to assess rat intestinal tissues following irradiation. The EIS results were fitted to a resistor and capacitor electrical circuit model to solve the electrical properties of the tissue. The variation in the tissue's electrical characteristics was compared to the morphological and histological findings. From the experimental results, it was clear that the electrical properties, based on receiver operation curve analysis, demonstrated good detection performance relative to the histological changes. The electrical parameters of the tissues could be used to distinguish the tissue's status for investigation, which introduced a concept of 'electrical biopsy', and this 'electrical biopsy' approach may be used to complement histological examinations.