Design an Electrical Bio-Impedance Forceps for Local Measuring Electrical Properties of Tissues Inside of the Human Body

In this paper a new idea is suggested for designing an appropriate bio-impedance sensor in the form of a biopsy forceps to measure the electrical properties of the tissues inside the body. First, by analytically solving the Laplace equation for wedge-shaped tissue in the mouth of the forceps, the relationship between electric potential (results from excitation current) in different points on the tissue surface and the electrical properties of the tissue are obtained. Then, to evaluate the designed bio-impedance forceps using the finite element method and the experimental data obtained for different tissues by Gabriel et al., modeling and simulation were done and it was found that the voltages obtained for all of the tissues inside the mouth of the forceps at different frequencies from 50 Hz to 5 MHz, are consistent with that of the analytical method. To investigate the influence of the opening angle of the forceps, measurements were done at different angles and it was found that for small opening angles, measurements are more accurate. Also, electrical properties were measured by changing the size and shape of the tissue and it was found that the designed forceps is non-sensitive and robust to the changes of the volume and shape of the tissue. A prototype of the designed bio-impedance forceps was fabricated. The forceps was experimentally validated by measuring conductivity of the Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS) solution with different concentrations at frequency range of 50KHz to 1MHz using an impedance analyzer system. To examine the accuracy of measured conductivity values, the Van Der Pauw method was implemented and electrical conductivity of the PBS was measured again. Results showed that measured conductivities by means of the bio-impedance forceps were accurate with an error less than 4%.