Magnetic Induction Tomography in Biomedical and Industrial Applications

Magnetic induction tomography (MIT) is a non-invasive, contactless imaging modality that maps the internal electrical conductivity of a target by inducing eddy currents with alternating magnetic fields and measuring their secondary responses. In biomedical contexts, MIT has been explored for real-time monitoring of cerebral haemorrhage, differentiation of stroke subtypes, intracranial fluid shifts and brain oedema, offering the potential for portable, low-cost bedside diagnostics. In industrial settings, MIT provides rapid, in-situ visualisation of multiphase flows in pipelines, process vessels and metal solidification, enabling continuous process control under harsh or enclosed conditions. Advances in coil design, sensor integration and computational reconstruction have progressively enhanced spatial resolution, sensitivity and speed. The global significance of MIT lies in its ability to deliver non-ionising, real-time imaging in environments where conventional modalities are impractical, from remote clinical settings to high-temperature industrial plants.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have demonstrated the viability of MIT for continuous, real-time monitoring in both healthcare and manufacturing. A phase-shift tomography system integrated with high-speed data acquisition and software controls has achieved sub-millilitre sensitivity in tracking cerebral haemorrhage progression, correlating phase difference changes to bleeding volume in live models. In metallurgy, arrays of excitation and receiver coils combined with temporal reconstruction algorithms have been applied to image metal solidification processes, capturing the evolution of liquid-to-solid interfaces and measuring shell thickness during alloy cooling. These foundational efforts confirm that MIT can deliver dynamic, contactless imaging in challenging biomedical and industrial environments.

Magnetic Induction Tomography in Biomedical and Industrial Applications publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in magnetic induction tomography in biomedical and industrial applications across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Magnetic Induction Tomography (MIT): A non-ionising imaging technique that reconstructs a map of internal electrical conductivity by inducing and detecting eddy currents with magnetic fields.

Eddy currents: Circular currents generated within conductive materials by time-varying magnetic fields, whose characteristics depend on local conductivity.

Inverse problem: The computational challenge of deducing internal property distributions from measured electromagnetic signals.

Excitation coil: A conductor carrying an alternating current to generate the primary magnetic field for MIT.

Phase shift: The change in phase angle between the transmitted and received signals, used to infer local conductivity variations.

References

1. Biplane Enhancement Coil for Magnetic Induction Tomography of Cerebral Hemorrhage. Biosensors (2024).
2. Magnetic Induction Tomography: Separation of the Ill-Posed and Non-Linear Inverse Problem into a Series of Isolated and Less Demanding Subproblems. Sensors (2023).
3. Developments and Applications of Electromagnetic Tomography in Process Engineering. Chemical Engineering Research and Design (2024).
4. Construction of a Cerebral Hemorrhage Test System Operated in Real-time. Scientific Reports (2017).
5. Magnetic inductive phase shift: a new method to differentiate hemorrhagic stroke from ischemic stroke on rabbit. BioMedical Engineering OnLine (2017).
6. Non-Invasive Electromagnetic Skin Patch Sensor to Measure Intracranial Fluid–Volume Shifts. Sensors (2018).
7. Volumetric Electromagnetic Phase-Shift Spectroscopy of Brain Edema and Hematoma. PLOS ONE (2013).
8. Metal Solidification Imaging Process by Magnetic Induction Tomography. Scientific Reports (2017).