Animal and human imaging experiments in magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT)

Cross-sectional imaging of an electrical conductivity distribution inside the human body has been an active research topic in the field of impedance imaging. This paper describes the recent progress in magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT) where conductivity imaging with a spatial resolution of a few mm is pursued. After the early studies on its theory and image reconstruction algorithms, MREIT has reached the stage of in vivo animal and human imaging experiments. After reviewing latest MREIT imaging experiments, we discuss several technical challenges to be addressed in the future work.