Abstract
We assess the application of microwave tomography (MWT) for the detection of axillary lymph nodes (ALNs) in breast cancer patients. We numerically study the effects of limiting angular view in axillary MWT, as probes can only be placed on a limited arc around the axillary region. We also numerically study the possibility of increasing the amount of retrievable information by acquiring data in two consecutive steps, with a single antenna set in two different angular positions. We finally experimentally test axillary MWT on anthropomorphic phantoms with different levels of anatomical fidelity, and different ALN positions. Our MWT system (0.8–2.5 GHz) employs six monopole antennas placed on a single transverse plane, facing the axillary region. The reconstruction algorithm implements the distorted Born iterative method, combined with the two-step iterative shrinkage/thresholding for the inversion (DBIM-TwIST). Our numerical results i) highlight the challenges associated with the limited angular view, and ii) show that performing two-step angular measurements enhances imaging results, suggesting that rotating the antenna set between consecutive measurements is an effective means to increase the retrievable information in ALN MWT. Our experimental results show that our MWT system can detect an ALN in different positions. To the best of our knowledge this is the first paper to assess ALN MWT in a realistic 3-D experimental scenario.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
More From: IEEE Journal of Electromagnetics, RF and Microwaves in Medicine and Biology
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.