In-vitro and in-vivo measurement of iron concentration in human hepatic tissue by magnetic induction methods

We study the feasibility of a new noninvasive method to measure hepatic iron overload using a magnetic induction (Ml) based system. Experimental data (in vitro and in-vivo) were acquired with a custom measurement system using an excitation coil and a planar gradiometer as receiver. We estimate the response of the system using analytical expressions for the in-vitro study and the finite element method (FEM) for the in-vivo study. Seventeen in-vitro liver samples have been measured. Measurements were compared with a biochemical iron estimation procedure. A significant agreement is observed (R=0.94, P<0.001) between biochemical and MI results. The systems and procedures were adapted for in-vivo measurements. Ten patients and 8 volunteers were measured. We show the results for these two groups and two different estimators.