Abstract
We present a pilot study using a microwave tomography system in which we image the forearms of 5 adult male and female volunteers between the ages of 30 and 48. Microwave scattering data were collected at 0.8 to 1.2 GHz with 24 transmitting and receiving antennas located in a matching fluid of deionized water and table salt. Inversion of the microwave data was performed with a balanced version of the multiplicative-regularized contrast source inversion algorithm formulated using the finite-element method (FEM-CSI). T1-weighted MRI images of each volunteer's forearm were also collected in the same plane as the microwave scattering experiment. Initial “blind” imaging results from the utilized inversion algorithm show that the image quality is dependent on the thickness of the arm's peripheral adipose tissue layer; thicker layers of adipose tissue lead to poorer overall image quality. Due to the exible nature of the FEM-CSI algorithm used, prior information can be readily incorporated into the microwave imaging inversion process. We show that by introducing prior information into the FEM-CSI algorithm the internal anatomical features of all the arms are resolved, significantly improving the images. The prior information was estimated manually from the blind inversions using an ad hoc procedure.
Highlights
Microwave imaging (MWI) is an alternative imaging modality that promises several advantages over more established modalities such as X-ray, ultrasound, or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
We believe that the best argument for the use of microwave imaging is that it promises to fill a niche within the medical imaging world, providing a nonionizing, inexpensive imaging modality which is capable of imaging soft tissue contrast
Imaging live humans is more challenging than imaging phantoms as volunteer safety, movement, variations in size, and the presence of complex tissues, not entirely predicted by simplified phantoms, need to be considered. (It has often been noted that the gap between theory and practice is larger in practice than it is in theory.) We argue that the largest barrier to microwave tomography (MWT) is the lack of clinical images available to be taken to the clinical professionals who regularly read anatomical images
Summary
Microwave imaging (MWI) is an alternative imaging modality that promises several advantages over more established modalities such as X-ray, ultrasound, or MRI. We believe that the best argument for the use of microwave imaging is that it promises to fill a niche within the medical imaging world, providing a nonionizing, inexpensive imaging modality which is capable of imaging soft tissue contrast. The three most common medical imaging modalities are ultrasound, X-rays (both planar and CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Planar X-rays are inexpensive and give only a small dose of ionizing radiation and struggle with imaging soft tissue contrast. X-ray CT is somewhat inexpensive and has good soft tissue contrast imaging capabilities but gives a significant dose of ionizing radiation per scan. X-ray CT is somewhat inexpensive and has good soft tissue contrast imaging capabilities but gives a significant dose of ionizing radiation per scan. (This radiation is important for children: a single abdominal helical CT in young female children results in 1 in 1000 risks of fatal cancer later in life [14].) MRI is nonionizing, offers excellent soft
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