Removing Open-Ended Fringe Lines Facilitates Brain Phase-Based Electrical Properties Tomography in Parkinson’s Disease

Motivation: Electrical properties tomography (EPT) could have clinical applications, providing useful information in Parkinson's disease (PD) and other neurodegenerative diseases. Goal(s): To investigate brain conductivity changes in a PD study. Approach: Phased-based EPT was applied in 8 PD patients and 8 healthy controls (HC). Regional tissue conductivity values were compared. To reduce the effects on EPT of open-ended fringe lines in the phase, we investigated a method based on removing affected brain areas. Results: Removing areas affected by open-ended fringe line reduced artifacts in EPT reconstructions. Cerebral white matter showed significantly lower conductivity in PD relative to HCs. Impact: Phase-based EPT was calculated in a Parkinson's disease study by removing areas affected by open-ended fringe lines. We showed that conductivity mapping is feasible even when open-ended fringe lines are present, which will facilitate clinical applications of EPT.