Functional Electrical Impedance Tomography of Evoked Responses (fEITER) (360G-Wellcome-077724_Z_05_A)

Functional brain imaging is now an essential tool, and is well-established in medicine. The need for brain imaging is increasing with growing concern over neuro-degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, hence there are larger numbers of patients to be routinely scanned than ever before. Current scanners are not available in every hospital due to their high cost. Where they are available they are large, noisy, fixed installations that are not portable. Professor Hugh McCann and Dr Chris Pomfrett from the University of Manchester has been awarded translational funding to develop a newly discovered technique called Functional Electrical Impedance Tomography of Evoked Responses (fEITER), which is directly sensitive to the brains electrical operation. This tool will enable screening of large populations, and prompt action to be taken in emergencies. The scans could be performed wherever the patient is, even at home.