Patent ID: 7865236

Claim:
A method of discriminating a location of nerve tissue within a subject, comprising: placing a waveform electrode array on skin of the subject, wherein each electrode in the waveform electrode array has an area of no more than approximately 10 mm 2 ; placing a return electrode on skin of the subject at a position on the skin removed from the waveform electrode array at a linear inter-electrode separation distance that falls within a tail region of an impedance v. distance curve for the subject; applying a signal serially to each of the electrodes in the waveform electrode array and the return electrode; measuring a change in a characteristic of the signal resulting from transmission through tissue between each electrode in the waveform array and the return electrode; and discriminating a location of nerve tissue located beneath the waveform electrode array by processing the measured change in the characteristics of the signal to identify anisotropic features in underlying tissue.