Patent ID: 8332025

Claim:
A method for determining a condition of a region of epithelial or stromal tissue comprising: (A) establishing a connection between a first electrode and the tissue; (B) placing a second electrode in electrical contact on an outer tissue surface proximate the epithelial tissue; (C) establishing at least one electrical signal between the first and second electrodes; (D) measuring or deriving: (1) impedance or DC or transepithelial potential values, or a combination thereof, between the first and second electrode; and (2) at least one additional electrophysiological property selected from the group consisting of subepithelial resistance, epithelial resistance, capacitance, characteristic frequency, and depression angle; and (E) determining the condition of a region of epithelial tissue based on the measured or derived properties; wherein: (i) the measured or derived value in (D)(1) is impedance or impedance and at least one of DC potential and transepithelial potential; (ii) at least two response curves are obtained from impedance data; and (iii) the curves include: (a) a high frequency curve at a frequency of about 60,000 Hz to about 100 Hz; (b) a intermediate frequency curve at a frequency of about 100 Hz to about 10 Hz; and (c) a low frequency curve at a frequency of about 0.1 to about 6 Hz.