New Technology Could be Adapted for Low Radiation Brain Scanning

There’s a new imaging technology being developed for brain scanning that may significant advantages over traditional CT (computed tomography) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanning processes. The Electrical Capacitance Volume Tomography (or the ECVT) was first developed by the Center for Tomography Research Laboratory (CTECH Labs) to enable 4-D brain activity scanning. It’s purportedly low-cost, radiation-free, and offers instantaneous detection of abnormalities in the brain caused by tumors, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, and other brain dysfunctions.

Whereas CT scans and MRIs observe only the anatomy of the human brain in 2-D, ECVT enables doctors to observe the brain’s function in real time, using computerized sensor systems. ECVT is low energy (5 volts) in contrast to CT Scans (requiring 6 million volts) and MRIs (requiring 1-3 Tesla of magnetic field). ECVT also emits no radiation and requires only an easy-to-operate and non-invasive helmet scanner (pictured).

Warsito Purwo Taruno, Ph.D.—founder and director of CTECH Labs—began work on this technology at Ohio State University in 1999.

“At that time the technology was mainly applied to chemical reactor and process scanning,” Taruno told Medical Product Outsourcing. “This technology uses a different approach as compared to conventional imaging tech like CT scanning, MRI, and so on. The ECVT scanning system uses low electrical intensity waves. So it might be applied to human body scanning in a fairly simple way. That’s why, after I went back to Indonesia in 2006, I started to develop the technology for medical applications.”

Before the native Indonesian researcher started developing the technology for medical applications in 2006, the low energy wave scanner caught the attention of NASA. In 2006, NASA started using the ECVT to scan the outer walls of space shuttles from inside the shuttle walls. The system was adapted to help sense the presence of water in nonconductive spacecraft materials, by helping to not only find the approximate location of moisture but also its quantity and depth.

“The outer walls of space shuttles, often made of a ceramic material, may be damaged with the accumulation of dielectric material like water—but its not possible to scan the outside of the space shuttle from inside using conventional technologies like X rays or gamma rays another source of linear scanning,” Taruno explained.

It is because ECVT scanners use such low energy that the waves it emits are nonlinear. This poses a challenge for developing the resulting image, which is what Taruno and his collaborators are now working to perfect.

In the United States, the ECVT is currently being used by NASA for experimentation of zero gravity fuel gauging and by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory for the development of next-generation, clean-energy power plants.

ECVT for brain scanning was presented by Taruno at the 6th International IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Conference on Neural Engineering in San Diego, Calif. early November. Regulatory approval for medical applications is well down the line.

CTECH Labs developed the prototype for ECVT in 2004 and continues to research and study new applications for the technology. CTECH Labs has collaborated with world universities and centers for research and development, including Ohio State University, National Natural Science Laboratory of Japan, and Universiti Kebangsaan (Malaysia).
  
Warsito Purwo Taruno, Ph.D., is the founder and director of CTECH Labs. He earned his bachelor’s and masters’ degree in chemical engineering and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Shizuoka University, Japan. In 2004, Taruno invented the prototype for ECVT together with L.S. Fan, Ph.D., and Qussai Marashdeh, PhD., of Ohio State University.