Development of an Instrumentation Platform for Studying the Electrical Property of Soft Tissue under Mechanical Stimulation

The electrical property of soft tissue is reported to be sensitive to the applied pressure. In this paper, an instrumentation platform is designed to provide simultaneous electrical-mechanical sensing while different mechanical compression conditions are applied. For this purpose, mechanical structure and control system are integrated to provide different pressing forces or pressing speeds. In addition, an electrode is designed to generate a uniform electric field, and an impedance spectrometer is involved for electrical impedance measurement. After the platform is made, characterization experiments are performed to demonstrate that the designed platform is qualified with position, speed, and force control accuracy of 100%, 98%, and 97% respectively. Subsequently, ex vivo animal tissue experiments are carried out for a preliminary test of the association between electrical and mechanical properties of soft tissue. According to the experimental results, a positive association between electrical impedance and the applied pressure is observed.