Estimating volumes of intra-abdominal blood using electrical impedance imaging

Electrical Impedance Imaging is a non-invasive method of imaging which we intend to apply to the problem of detecting intraabdominal bleeding in Emergency Centre patients. Experiments performed using a cylindrical saline-gel phantom show that as little as 25 ml of free blood within the abdomen may be detected. We also find a strong linear correlation between the total resistivity change created by the anomaly and the volume of the equivalent blood anomaly; thus enabling us to easily quantify the volume of blood perfused into the abdomen over a period of time directly from a reconstructed image. The total resistivity change produced by an anomaly is also observed to be independent of its radial position within the phantom.