Abstract
A novel focused active microwave system is investigated for detecting tumors in the breast. In contrast to X-ray and ultrasound modalities, the method reviewed here exploits the breast-tissue physical properties unique to the microwave spectrum, namely, the translucent nature of normal breast tissues and the high dielectric contrast between malignant tumors and surrounding lesion-free normal breast tissues. The system uses a pulsed confocal technique and time-gating to enhance the detection of tumors while suppressing the effects of tissue heterogeneity and absorption. Using published data for the dielectric properties of normal breast tissues and malignant tumors, we have conducted a two-dimensional (2-D) finite-difference timedomain (FDTD) computational electromagnetics analysis of the system. The FDTD simulations showed that tumors as small as 2 mm in diameter could be robustly detected in the presence of the background clutter generated by the heterogeneity of the surrounding normal tissue. Lateral spatial resolution of the tumor location was found to be about 0.5 cm.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1470-1479 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering |
Volume | 45 |
Issue number | 12 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1998 |
Funding
Manuscript received November 4, 1997; revised May 27, 1998. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Phase-I SBIR Grant 1R43CA67598 01A2. Asterisk indicates corresponding author. *S. C. Hagness is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI 53706 USA (e-mail: [email protected]). A. Taflove is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208 USA. J. E. Bridges is with Interstitial, Inc., Park Ridge, IL 60068 USA. Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9294(98)08848-X.
Keywords
- Biomédical electromagnetic imaging
- Cancer
- FDTD methods
- Microwave antenna arrays
- Numerical analysis
- Scattering
- Tumors
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biomedical Engineering