A Breast Tumor Monitoring Vest with Flexible UWB Antennas-A Proof-of-Concept Study Using Realistic Breast Phantoms
Dessai, Rakshita; Singh, Daljeet; Sonkki, Marko; Reponen, Jarmo; Myllylä, Teemu; Myllymäki, Sami; Särestöniemi, Mariella (2024-09-14)
Dessai, Rakshita
Singh, Daljeet
Sonkki, Marko
Reponen, Jarmo
Myllylä, Teemu
Myllymäki, Sami
Särestöniemi, Mariella
MDPI
14.09.2024
Dessai R, Singh D, Sonkki M, Reponen J, Myllylä T, Myllymäki S, Särestöniemi M. A Breast Tumor Monitoring Vest with Flexible UWB Antennas—A Proof-of-Concept Study Using Realistic Breast Phantoms. Micromachines. 2024; 15(9):1153. https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15091153
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202409306128
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202409306128
Tiivistelmä
Abstract
Breast cancers can appear and progress rapidly, necessitating more frequent monitoring outside of hospital settings to significantly reduce mortality rates. Recently, there has been considerable interest in developing techniques for portable, user-friendly, and low-cost breast tumor monitoring applications, enabling frequent and cost-efficient examinations. Microwave technique-based breast cancer detection, which is based on differential dielectric properties of malignant and healthy tissues, is regarded as a promising solution for cost-effective breast tumor monitoring. This paper presents the development process of the first proof-of-concept of a breast tumor monitoring vest which is based on the microwave technique. Two unique vests are designed and evaluated on realistic 3D human tissue phantoms having different breast density types. Additionally, the measured results are verified using simulations carried out on anatomically realistic voxel models of the electromagnetic simulations. The radio channel characteristics are evaluated and analyzed between the antennas embedded in the vest in tumor cases and reference cases. Both measurements and simulation results show that the proposed vest can detect tumors even if only 1 cm in diameter. Additionally, simulation results show detectability with 0.5 cm tumors. It is observed that the detectability of breast tumors depends on the frequency, antenna selection, size of the tumors, and breast types, causing differences of 0.5–30 dB in channel responses between the tumorous and reference cases. Due to simplicity and cost-efficiency, the proposed channel analysis-based breast monitoring vests can be used for breast health checks in smaller healthcare centers and for user-friendly home monitoring which can prove beneficial in rural areas and developing countries.
Breast cancers can appear and progress rapidly, necessitating more frequent monitoring outside of hospital settings to significantly reduce mortality rates. Recently, there has been considerable interest in developing techniques for portable, user-friendly, and low-cost breast tumor monitoring applications, enabling frequent and cost-efficient examinations. Microwave technique-based breast cancer detection, which is based on differential dielectric properties of malignant and healthy tissues, is regarded as a promising solution for cost-effective breast tumor monitoring. This paper presents the development process of the first proof-of-concept of a breast tumor monitoring vest which is based on the microwave technique. Two unique vests are designed and evaluated on realistic 3D human tissue phantoms having different breast density types. Additionally, the measured results are verified using simulations carried out on anatomically realistic voxel models of the electromagnetic simulations. The radio channel characteristics are evaluated and analyzed between the antennas embedded in the vest in tumor cases and reference cases. Both measurements and simulation results show that the proposed vest can detect tumors even if only 1 cm in diameter. Additionally, simulation results show detectability with 0.5 cm tumors. It is observed that the detectability of breast tumors depends on the frequency, antenna selection, size of the tumors, and breast types, causing differences of 0.5–30 dB in channel responses between the tumorous and reference cases. Due to simplicity and cost-efficiency, the proposed channel analysis-based breast monitoring vests can be used for breast health checks in smaller healthcare centers and for user-friendly home monitoring which can prove beneficial in rural areas and developing countries.
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