Contents

Current Medical Imaging Methods Introduction Why Microwaves Applications Examples of Diagnostic Applications Consclusion

CT, MRI and Ultrasound

In computerised tomography (CT) the X-ray source rotates around a plane of the body, taking serial pictures with a detector (instead of a film) which are synthesized by a computer. The resulting picture created by the computer is like a section of the body and can be recorded on a film. CT pictures are therefore like X-ray images. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses the property of protons aligning themselves in a magnetic field and their reaction to radio frequency waves. The protons resonate to the radio frequency and revert to normal (decay) when the radiation is stopped. Effectively it is the imaging of protons. The most commonly imaged proton is a hydrogen nucleus. So far it is believed that this method does not damage body tissues as X-rays do. MRI images are even more realistic than CT images. Ultrasound on the other hand uses mechanical waves of frequencies beyond the audible range. These waves are reflected to various degrees from junctions of tissues of different nature. Ultrasound pictures require considerable skill to interpret. Ultrasound has a great advantage it does not cause cellular damage when used in quantities required for imaging.

Key Points : CT : Synthesis of multiple X-ray images of a slice. MRI : Imaging protons excited by radio waves. Ultrasound : High - frequency sound waves reflected from tissue junctions. All these methods illustrate structure of the body in some form of sectional view.
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CT Scan system

X-rays have a wavelength of between 10 and 0.01 nanometers

3

UltraSound

MRI

They provide high spatial resolution images, they lack functional information about molecular changes in tissue.

ultrasound is usually between 2 and 18 MHz. Higher frequencies provide better quality images, but are more readily absorbed by the skin and other tissue, so they cannot penetrate as deeply as lower frequencies. Lower frequencies can penetrate deeper, but the image quality is inferior.

APPLICATION OF MICROWAVE IN MEDICAL

1. Introduction
Prominent clinical technique: X-ray mammography

Low sensitivity,
High false-positive rate (1% to 29% mean 10%)

Unnecessary and costly surgical interventions

Uncomfortable compression

Ionizing radiation

Microwave Vs Ultrasound
With ultrasounds ( 5 MHz /\t= 0.007 cm) : microwaves cross media containing air without being attenuated and are absorbed by high water content media. When the ultrasounds are strongly attenuated, the microwaves are almost transparent - for example, in bone tissues- attenuation of ultrasounds is equal 10.6 db/cm - and for 3 GHz microwave : 1. 18 db/cm

Microwave vs X- Ray
With X-rays on the one hand, the nature of interactions with matter is different - they occur at molecular level with microwaves and at atomic level, with X-rays. Mammary tissues containing a tumor, a better contrast is obtained with microwaves due to the dielectric variations of tissues (ratios 6 to 40 for the microwaves)

Microwave Imaging
Active microwaves (ranging from high MHz to low GHz) to detect abnormalities in the mammary tissues
Permittivity
Dielectric Properties of tissues:

Conductivity
Mammary glands: largest difference in dielectric properties of various normal and malignant tissues

Advantages:
Substantial information about the malignancy or healthiness of breast tissue Fat Easy penetration Easy accessibility Non-ionizing and non-compressive

Principles in Microwave Imaging

Dielectric Properties
Permittivity,
a measurement of energy storage in a material from an external electric field

Conductivity, (siemens/m)
how dissipative or lossy a material is to an external electric field*

*Agilent tech notes

The interrogating frequency ranges are between 1 and 4 GHz in which the tissues are the least attenuated.

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APPLICATION OF RADAR CONCEPTS

Radars in their principles show that the distance resolution is determined either by the emitted impulse duration or by the emitted wave bandwidth. By transposition of these methods to medical medium and to biological media assimilated to high water content media gives a distance resolution of about 8 mm.

The two techniques

The interrogating frequency ranges are between 1 and 4 GHz in which the tissues are the least attenuated. a monofrequency CW continuous radar from which can be obtained bidimensional imaging of a dielectric target.With this type of radar, we measure the phase and amplitude of the diffracted wave by the dielectric target. We measure the complex Sij diffracted parameters associated to the target with a network analyzer.Biological media having properties depending on their water content degree show different properties. small dielectric targets (diameter being 15 mm about) immersed in water and spaced by 10 mm can be detected as well as imaging on an isolated kidney. This gives a distance resolution between 5 to 10 mm.

The two techniques contd..

with a linear frequency modulation CW radar (chirp radar), we can obtain tri-dimensional imaging Using this technique, we can measure the propagation delay and the wave attenuation at the crossing of various dielectric media. It provides a frequency spaced distribution induced by the multiple dielectric interfaces. Continuous radar with frequency modulation requires an antenna sensor, the band of which being infinite, the aperture dimensions being small and the phase center remaining invariable in frequency. This large bandwidth antenna must be radioelectrically matched to tissues properties and it could discern and discriminate two beam targets, the delay of which being 100 ps, corresponding to various targets of 6 m in the brain and 4.5 mm in muscles.

microwave Imaging
Microwave Imaging at Dartmouth:

frequency range from 500 MHz to 3 GHz

Sub centimeter resolution

Applications of Microwave
Extremities soft-tissue imaging
The successful management of a fractured bone involves an understanding of the two major components of any segments of injured extremity. These two components are the bony element and the soft-tissue elements (skin, muscle, nerve and vessels)

Reconstructed images of an excised segment of a pig hind leg.Scales are in cm. Frequency 0.9GHz. Reconstruction using a three-dimensional gradient approach. (Reproduced from the Biophysical Laboratory, Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, NC, USA.)

the frequency used was 0.9GHz, applicable for imaging larger objects, for example whole-body imaging. Higher frequencies (up to 34GHz)

Diagnostics of tissue malignancies.

Malignancies and dielectric properties of tissue
The dielectric properties of normal and malignant tissues have been studied. Almost a century ago, at 20kHz, the permittivity of malignant mammary tumour is higher than that of normal mammary tissue The dielectric properties of malignant tumours and normal tissues are different in the mammary gland, liver and lungs.

Diagnostics of tissue malignancies

Liver tissues The most up-to-date study of ex vivo and in vivo normal and malignant liver tissues concluded that the dielectric properties of ex vivo malignant liver tissue are 1930% higher than normal, while the same differences in in vivo tissues are not statistically significant with the exception of conductivity at 915MHz.

Diagnostics of tissue malignancies

Blood perfusion, malignancies and dielectric properties Microwave Imaging Tomography (MWT) is such an imaging modality, which can indeed detect both malignancies and local blood perfusion. It can detect malignant tissue together with an assessment of local tissue blood supply, tissue hypoxia and infarction

Mammary cancer detection

Microwave tomographic mammography. Computer-simulated imaging of tumour with radius 3mm. Frequency 3.5GHz.

Lung cancer detection

The challenging problem of lung imaging is in the detection of small malignant tumours within the highly dielectrically inhomogeneous and structurally complex human chest. At a frequency of 0.9GHz the average by volume dielectric properties are measured, including lung tissue, blood and air. This is also supported by the dependence of the dielectric properties of lung on the inhalation/exhalation phase of the respiratory cycle

Brain imaging

Reconstructed MWT images of a simulated brain model with a stroke injury with radius 2cm using multi-frequency reconstruction: (a) 0.5 and 1.0GHz; and (b) 2.0 and 1.0GHz. 1% noise. Area with suspected stroke injury is circled in white. Reconstruction using a three-dimensional

gradient method. computer simulation using the head model with tabulated dielectric properties of tissues and those of embalmed brain tissues for the same experimental setting: antennaantenna distance of 24cm and frequency 0.81GHz. The overall measured and simulated attenuations in solution alone are in good agreement: 97.8 and 99dB

Cardiac imaging
Both MRI and CT have good spatial resolution but suffer from poor temporal resolution. Since MWT has the competitive advantage of very short frame rates/time resolution (within ms), it is expected that this technology might be used for more sophisticated analyses of cardiac function and viability of myocardial tissue.

Cardiac imaging

Reconstructed images (at 2.4GHz) of explanted canine .Two different vertical cross sections ((a) X=1.5cm and (b) Y=1.5cm) are shown. Reconstruction using a three-dimensional gradient method

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