The Cole relaxation frequency as a parameter to identify cancer in breast tissue

• Published in: Medical physics (Lancaster) Vol. 39; no. 7; pp. 4167 - 4174
• Main Authors: Gregory, W. D., Marx, J. J., Gregory, C. W., Mikkelson, W. M., Tjoe, J. A., Shell, J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Association of Physicists in Medicine 01-07-2012
• Subjects: Algorithms; Arrangements for measuring resistance, reactance, impedance, or electric characteristics derived therefrom; bioelectric potentials; Bioelectrochemistry; bioimpedance; biological tissues; biomedical; biomedical electrodes; breast cancer; Breast Neoplasms - diagnosis; Breast Neoplasms - physiopathology; Cancer; Cell cultures; cellular biophysics; Cole–Cole; data acquisition; Data analysis; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted - methods; electric impedance measurement; Electric measurements; Electrical properties; Electrodes; Female; Frequency analyzers; Humans; In Vitro Techniques; Measurements in electric variables (including voltage, current, resistance, capacitance, inductance, impedance, and admittance, etc.); Pathology; platinum; Plethysmography, Impedance - methods; relaxation frequency; Reproducibility of Results; sensitivity; sensitivity analysis; Sensitivity and Specificity; silver; silver compounds; surgery; Surgical instruments, devices or methods, e.g. tourniquets; Therapeutic applications; Tissues; bioimpedance; relaxation frequency; breast cancer; Cole–Cole; biomedical
• DOI: 10.1118/1.4725172
• EISSN: 2473-4209
• ISSN: 0094-2405

Purpose:
To correlate the Cole relaxation frequencies obtained from measurements of the electrical properties of breast tissue to the presence or absence of cancer.
Methods:
Four-lead impedance measurements were obtained onex vivo specimens extracted during surgery from 187 volunteer patients. Data were acquired with a commercial Solartron impedance bridge employing 4-lead Ag–AgCl or blackened platinum (BPt) electrodes at frequencies logarithmically spaced from 1 Hz to 3.2 × 107 Hz utilizing 6–10 frequencies per decade. The Cole frequencies obtained from these measurements were correlated with the tissue health status (cancer or noncancer) obtained from histological analysis of the specimens.
Results:
Analysis of the impedance measurements showed that the Cole relaxation frequencies correlated to the presence or absence of cancer in the examined tissue with a sensitivity up to 100% (95% CI, 99%–100%) and a specificity up to 85% (95% CI, 79%–91%) based on the ROC curve of the data with the Cole frequency as the classifier.
Conclusions:
The results show that the Cole frequency alone is a viable classifier for malignant breast anomalies. Results of the current work are consistent with recent bioimpedance measurements on single cell and cell suspension breast cell lines.