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Electromagnetic Technologies for Medical Diagnostics: Fundamental Issues, Clinical Applications and Perspectives

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A special issue of Diagnostics (ISSN 2075-4418). This special issue belongs to the section "Medical Imaging and Theranostics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2018) | Viewed by 89336

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Lorenzo Crocco

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Guest Editor

IREA – Institute for Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment, Via Diocleziano 328, 8014 Napoli, Italy
Interests: microwave imaging; noninvasive electromagnetic diagnostics; therapeutic applications of EM fields; forward and inverse electromagnetic scattering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Panos Kosmas

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Guest Editor

Department of Engineering, King’s College London, London, UK
Interests: computational electrodynamics (FDTD); antennas and microwave engineering; physics-based signal processing; medical imaging
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Electromagnetic (EM) technologies for medical imaging represent an emerging alternative diagnostic modality, which is attracting the attention of many researchers worldwide, thanks to unique features such as the non-ionizing nature and the intrinsic low cost of equipment. At the European level, this research area has gained significant momentum through two COST Actions (MiMed—TD1301; EMF-MED BM1309), which have brought together the efforts of a number of scholars and practitioners in the push towards translating this emerging technology into clinics.

This Special Issue aims at providing a comprehensive picture on this lively research area by gathering contributions covering all aspects related to this research, starting from fundamental questions (e.g., dielectric property measurements of tissue, development of imaging methodologies, modelling of EM scattering), to experimental validation in laboratory and in vivo, down to clinical trials and applications (e.g., breast cancer imaging, neuroimaging, biomedical sensing and monitoring of vital parameters). Contributions may be, therefore, related, but not limited, to microwave imaging, microwave radiometry, combined modalities, electrical property tomography, and low frequency imaging methods, such as electric impedance tomography, contrast enhanced imaging, and bioradar.

Dr. Lorenzo Crocco
Dr. Panos Kosmas
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diagnostics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Microwave imaging
Inverse scattering
Cancer
Electromagnetics
Biomedical radar
Biomedical sensing

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Published Papers (12 papers)

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Editorial

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3 pages, 163 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Introduction to Special Issue on “Electromagnetic Technologies for Medical Diagnostics: Fundamental Issues, Clinical Applications and Perspectives”

by Panagiotis Kosmas and Lorenzo Crocco

Diagnostics 2019, 9(1), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics9010019 - 13 Feb 2019

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4549

Abstract

The application of microwave technologies in medical imaging and diagnostics is an emerging topic within the electromagnetic (EM) engineering community [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electromagnetic Technologies for Medical Diagnostics: Fundamental Issues, Clinical Applications and Perspectives)

Research

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12 pages, 1312 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Anthropomorphic Breast and Head Phantoms for Microwave Imaging

by Nadine Joachimowicz, Bernard Duchêne, Christophe Conessa and Olivier Meyer

Diagnostics 2018, 8(4), 85; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics8040085 - 18 Dec 2018

Cited by 75 | Viewed by 7324

Abstract

This paper deals with breast and head phantoms fabricated from 3D-printed structures and liquid mixtures whose complex permittivities are close to that of the biological tissues within a large frequency band. The goal is to enable an easy and safe manufacturing of stable-in-time detailed anthropomorphic phantoms dedicated to the test of microwave imaging systems to assess the performances of the latter in realistic configurations before a possible clinical application to breast cancer imaging or brain stroke monitoring. The structure of the breast phantom has already been used by several laboratories to test their measurement systems in the framework of the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action TD1301-MiMed. As for the tissue mimicking liquid mixtures, they are based upon Triton X-100 and salted water. It has been proven that such mixtures can dielectrically mimic the various breast tissues. It is shown herein that they can also accurately mimic most of the head tissues and that, given a binary fluid mixture model, the respective concentrations of the various constituents needed to mimic a particular tissue can be predetermined by means of a standard minimization method. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electromagnetic Technologies for Medical Diagnostics: Fundamental Issues, Clinical Applications and Perspectives)

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9 pages, 7050 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Characteristics of a Surgical Snare Using Microwave Energy

by Masashi Sugiyama and Kazuyuki Saito

Diagnostics 2018, 8(4), 83; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics8040083 - 15 Dec 2018

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4285

Abstract

Currently, minimally invasive treatments that insert various treatment devices into an endoscope are actively being performed. A high-frequency (HF) snare is commonly used as an energy device inserted into an endoscope. However, using a high-frequency snare, problems usually occur, such as the obstruction of the visual field caused by smoke. On the other hand, microwave heating produces less smoke and provides a better visual field. In this study, a snare using microwave energy inserted into an endoscope is proposed, and its characteristics are evaluated. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electromagnetic Technologies for Medical Diagnostics: Fundamental Issues, Clinical Applications and Perspectives)

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18 pages, 3934 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Monitoring Thermal Ablation via Microwave Tomography: An Ex Vivo Experimental Assessment

by Rosa Scapaticci, Vanni Lopresto, Rosanna Pinto, Marta Cavagnaro and Lorenzo Crocco

Diagnostics 2018, 8(4), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics8040081 - 6 Dec 2018

Cited by 45 | Viewed by 6039

Abstract

Thermal ablation treatments are gaining a lot of attention in the clinics thanks to their reduced invasiveness and their capability of treating non-surgical patients. The effectiveness of these treatments and their impact in the hospital’s routine would significantly increase if paired with a monitoring technique able to control the evolution of the treated area in real-time. This is particularly relevant in microwave thermal ablation, wherein the capability of treating larger tumors in a shorter time needs proper monitoring. Current diagnostic imaging techniques do not provide effective solutions to this issue for a number of reasons, including economical sustainability and safety. Hence, the development of alternative modalities is of interest. Microwave tomography, which aims at imaging the electromagnetic properties of a target under test, has been recently proposed for this scope, given the significant temperature-dependent changes of the dielectric properties of human tissues induced by thermal ablation. In this paper, the outcomes of the first ex vivo experimental study, performed to assess the expected potentialities of microwave tomography, are presented. The paper describes the validation study dealing with the imaging of the changes occurring in thermal ablation treatments. The experimental test was carried out on two ex vivo bovine liver samples and the reported results show the capability of microwave tomography of imaging the transition between ablated and untreated tissue. Moreover, the discussion section provides some guidelines to follow in order to improve the achievable performances. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electromagnetic Technologies for Medical Diagnostics: Fundamental Issues, Clinical Applications and Perspectives)

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11 pages, 1341 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Challenges and Potential Solutions of Psychophysiological State Monitoring with Bioradar Technology

by Lesya Anishchenko

Diagnostics 2018, 8(4), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics8040073 - 17 Oct 2018

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 5262

Abstract

Psychophysiological state monitoring provides a promising way to detect stress and accurately assess wellbeing. The purpose of the present work was to investigate the advantages of utilizing a new unobtrusive multi-transceiver system on the accuracy of remote psychophysiological state monitoring by means of a bioradar technique. The technique was tested in laboratory conditions with the participation of 35 practically healthy volunteers, who were asked to perform arithmetic and physical workload tests imitating different types of stressors. Information about any variation in vital signs, registered by a bioradar with two transceivers, was used to detect mental or physical stress. Processing of the experimental results showed that the designed two-channel bioradar can be used as a simple and relatively easy approach to implement a non-contact method for stress monitoring. However, individual specificity of physiological responses to mental and physical workloads makes the creation of a universal stress-detector classifier that is suitable for people with different levels of stress tolerance a challenging task. For non-athletes, the proposed method allows classification of calm state/mental workload and calm state/physical workload with an accuracy of 89% and 83% , respectively, without the usage of any additional a priori information on the subject. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electromagnetic Technologies for Medical Diagnostics: Fundamental Issues, Clinical Applications and Perspectives)

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18 pages, 7061 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effects of the Plastic of the Realistic GeePS-L2S-Breast Phantom

by Tomas Rydholm, Andreas Fhager, Mikael Persson, Shireen D. Geimer and Paul M. Meaney

Diagnostics 2018, 8(3), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics8030061 - 1 Sep 2018

Cited by 25 | Viewed by 5154

Abstract

A breast phantom developed at the Supelec Institute was interrogated to study its suitability for microwave tomography measurements. A microwave measurement system based on 16 monopole antennas and a vector network analyzer was used to study how the S-parameters are influenced by insertion of the phantom. The phantom is a 3D-printed structure consisting of plastic shells that can be filled with tissue mimicking liquids. The phantom was filled with different liquids and tested with the measurement system to determine whether the plastic has any effects on the recovered images or not. Measurements of the phantom when it is filled with the same liquid as the surrounding coupling medium are of particular interest. In this case, the phantom plastic has a substantial effects on the measurements which ultimately detracts from the desired images. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electromagnetic Technologies for Medical Diagnostics: Fundamental Issues, Clinical Applications and Perspectives)

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8 pages, 35122 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparison of X-ray-Mammography and Planar UWB Microwave Imaging of the Breast: First Results from a Patient Study

by Dennis Wörtge, Jochen Moll, Viktor Krozer, Babak Bazrafshan, Frank Hübner, Clara Park and Thomas J. Vogl

Diagnostics 2018, 8(3), 54; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics8030054 - 21 Aug 2018

Cited by 25 | Viewed by 5509

Abstract

Hemispherical and cylindrical antenna arrays are widely used in radar-based and tomography-based microwave breast imaging systems. Based on the dielectric contrast between healthy and malignant tissue, a three-dimensional image could be formed to locate the tumor. However, conventional X-ray mammography as the golden standard in breast cancer screening produces two-dimensional breast images so that a comparison between the 3D microwave image and the 2D mammogram could be difficult. In this paper, we present the design and realisation of a UWB breast imaging prototype for the frequency band from 1 to 9 GHz. We present a refined system design in light of the clinical usage by means of a planar scanning and compare microwave images with those obtained by X-ray mammography. Microwave transmission measurements were processed to create a two-dimensional image of the breast that can be compared directly with a two-dimensional mammogram. Preliminary results from a patient study are presented and discussed showing the ability of the proposed system to locate the tumor. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electromagnetic Technologies for Medical Diagnostics: Fundamental Issues, Clinical Applications and Perspectives)

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38 pages, 14559 KiB

Open AccessArticle

On-Site Validation of a Microwave Breast Imaging System, before First Patient Study

by Angie Fasoula, Luc Duchesne, Julio Daniel Gil Cano, Peter Lawrence, Guillaume Robin and Jean-Gael Bernard

Diagnostics 2018, 8(3), 53; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics8030053 - 18 Aug 2018

Cited by 49 | Viewed by 6875

Abstract

This paper presents the Wavelia microwave breast imaging system that has been recently installed at the Galway University Hospital, Ireland, for a first-in-human pilot clinical test. Microwave breast imaging has been extensively investigated over the last two decades as an alternative imaging modality that could potentially bring complementary information to state-of-the-art modalities such as X-ray mammography. Following an overview of the main working principles of this technology, the Wavelia imaging system architecture is presented, as are the radar signal processing algorithms that are used in forming the microwave images in which small tumors could be detectable for disease diagnosis. The methodology and specific quality metrics that have been developed to properly evaluate and validate the performance of the imaging system using complex breast phantoms that are scanned at controlled measurement conditions are also presented in the paper. Indicative results from the application of this methodology to the on-site validation of the imaging system after its installation at the hospital for pilot clinical testing are thoroughly presented and discussed. Given that the imaging system is still at the prototype level of development, a rigorous quality assessment and system validation at nominal operating conditions is very important in order to ensure high-quality clinical data collection. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electromagnetic Technologies for Medical Diagnostics: Fundamental Issues, Clinical Applications and Perspectives)

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15 pages, 1808 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Information Loss on Reconstruction Quality in Microwave Tomography for Medical Imaging

by Zhenzhuang Miao, Panagiotis Kosmas and Syed Ahsan

Diagnostics 2018, 8(3), 52; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics8030052 - 14 Aug 2018

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 5711

Abstract

This paper studies how limited information in data acquired by a wideband microwave tomography (MWT) system can affect the quality of reconstructed images. Limitations can arise from experimental errors, mismatch between the system and its model in the imaging algorithm, or losses in the immersion and coupling medium which are required to moderate this mismatch. We also present a strategy for improving reconstruction performance by discarding data that is dominated by experimental errors. The approach relies on recording transmitted signals in a wide frequency range, and then correlating the data in different frequencies. We apply this method to our wideband MWT prototype, which has been developed in our previous work. Using this system, we present results from simulated and experimental data which demonstrate the practical value of the frequency selection approach. We also propose a K-neighbour method to identify low quality data in a robust manner. The resulting enhancement in imaging quality suggests that this approach can be useful for various medical imaging scenarios, provided that data from multiple frequencies can be acquired and used in the reconstruction process. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electromagnetic Technologies for Medical Diagnostics: Fundamental Issues, Clinical Applications and Perspectives)

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22 pages, 767 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Diagnosing Breast Cancer with Microwave Technology: Remaining Challenges and Potential Solutions with Machine Learning

by Bárbara L. Oliveira, Daniela Godinho, Martin O’Halloran, Martin Glavin, Edward Jones and Raquel C. Conceição

Diagnostics 2018, 8(2), 36; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics8020036 - 19 May 2018

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 6237

Abstract

Currently, breast cancer often requires invasive biopsies for diagnosis, motivating researchers to design and develop non-invasive and automated diagnosis systems. Recent microwave breast imaging studies have shown how backscattered signals carry relevant information about the shape of a tumour, and tumour shape is often used with current imaging modalities to assess malignancy. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of microwave breast diagnosis systems which use machine learning to learn characteristics of benign and malignant tumours. The state-of-the-art, the main challenges still to overcome and potential solutions are outlined. Specifically, this work investigates the benefit of signal pre-processing on diagnostic performance, and proposes a new set of extracted features that capture the tumour shape information embedded in a signal. This work also investigates if a relationship exists between the antenna topology in a microwave system and diagnostic performance. Finally, a careful machine learning validation methodology is implemented to guarantee the robustness of the results and the accuracy of performance evaluation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electromagnetic Technologies for Medical Diagnostics: Fundamental Issues, Clinical Applications and Perspectives)

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Review

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34 pages, 1299 KiB

Open AccessReview

Radio-Frequency and Microwave Techniques for Non-Invasive Measurement of Blood Glucose Levels

by Tuba Yilmaz, Robert Foster and Yang Hao

Diagnostics 2019, 9(1), 6; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics9010006 - 8 Jan 2019

Cited by 122 | Viewed by 16123

Abstract

This paper reviews non-invasive blood glucose measurements via dielectric spectroscopy at microwave frequencies presented in the literature. The intent is to clarify the key challenges that must be overcome if this approach is to work, to suggest some possible ways towards addressing these [...] Read more.

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electromagnetic Technologies for Medical Diagnostics: Fundamental Issues, Clinical Applications and Perspectives)

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38 pages, 1638 KiB

Open AccessReview

Open-Ended Coaxial Probe Technique for Dielectric Measurement of Biological Tissues: Challenges and Common Practices

by Alessandra La Gioia, Emily Porter, Ilja Merunka, Atif Shahzad, Saqib Salahuddin, Marggie Jones and Martin O’Halloran

Diagnostics 2018, 8(2), 40; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics8020040 - 5 Jun 2018

Cited by 213 | Viewed by 14227

Abstract

Electromagnetic (EM) medical technologies are rapidly expanding worldwide for both diagnostics and therapeutics. As these technologies are low-cost and minimally invasive, they have been the focus of significant research efforts in recent years. Such technologies are often based on the assumption that there is a contrast in the dielectric properties of different tissue types or that the properties of particular tissues fall within a defined range. Thus, accurate knowledge of the dielectric properties of biological tissues is fundamental to EM medical technologies. Over the past decades, numerous studies were conducted to expand the dielectric repository of biological tissues. However, dielectric data is not yet available for every tissue type and at every temperature and frequency. For this reason, dielectric measurements may be performed by researchers who are not specialists in the acquisition of tissue dielectric properties. To this end, this paper reviews the tissue dielectric measurement process performed with an open-ended coaxial probe. Given the high number of factors, including equipment- and tissue-related confounders, that can increase the measurement uncertainty or introduce errors into the tissue dielectric data, this work discusses each step of the coaxial probe measurement procedure, highlighting common practices, challenges, and techniques for controlling and compensating for confounders. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electromagnetic Technologies for Medical Diagnostics: Fundamental Issues, Clinical Applications and Perspectives)

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