Patent ID: 7583994

Claim:
An apparatus for localizing a focal lesion in a biological tissue section, said lesion exhibiting an electrical property that is different from said electrical property of the tissue section, and wherein said electrical property in the tissue section is substantially constant, said apparatus comprising: a measurement arrangement configured to interact with the tissue section, to apply electrical excitation signals to said tissue section that polarize bioelectric signal sources in said tissue section to produce a distribution of electrical dipole moments in said tissue section, and to measure electrical response signals that occur in response to said excitation signals, and that collectively represent said distribution of electrical dipole moments, at a plurality of measurement locations on a surface of the tissue section; and a computer supplied with signals corresponding to said electrical response signals, said computer being programmed to reconstruct said distribution of electrical dipole moments from the signals supplied to the computer as a reconstructed distribution that overall best reproduces said signals supplied to the computer, and to determine, from said reconstructed distribution, a three-dimensional spatial location of said lesion and to determine, from said signals corresponding to said electrical response signals, an indicator as to whether said lesion is pathological, and to make said three-dimensional location and said indicator available as a humanly perceptible output.