Microwave-Induced Thermoacoustic Imaging Model for Potential Breast Cancer Detection

In this study, we develop a complete microwave-induced thermoacoustic imaging (TAI) model for potential breast cancer imaging application. Acoustic pressures generated by different breast tissue targets are investigated by finite-difference time-domain simulations of the entire TAI process including the feeding antenna, matching mechanism, fluidic environment, 3-D breast model, and acoustic transducer. Simulation results achieve quantitative relationships between the input microwave peak power and the resulting specific absorption rate as well as the output acoustic pressure. Microwave frequency dependence of the acoustic signals due to different breast tissues is established across a broadband frequency range (2.3-12 GHz), suggesting key advantages of spectroscopic TAI compare to TAI at a single frequency. Reconstructed thermoacoustic images are consistent with the modeling results. This model will contribute to design, optimization, and safety evaluation of microwave-induced TAI and spectroscopy.

[1]  S. S. Chaudhary,et al.  Dielectric properties of normal & malignant human breast tissues at radiowave & microwave frequencies. , 1984, Indian journal of biochemistry & biophysics.

[2]  Hao Xin,et al.  Thermoacoustic imaging and spectroscopy for enhanced breast cancer detection , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium.

[3]  A. Aisen,et al.  Thermoacoustic CT with radio waves: a medical imaging paradigm. , 1999, Radiology.

[4]  F. D. de Mul,et al.  A new theoretical approach to photoacoustic signal generation , 1999 .

[5]  C. Antonopoulos,et al.  A general form of perfectly matched layers for for three-dimensional problems of acoustic scattering in lossless and lossy fluid media , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[6]  Manojit Pramanik,et al.  Design and evaluation of a novel breast cancer detection system combining both thermoacoustic (TA) and photoacoustic (PA) tomography. , 2008, Medical physics.

[7]  L V Wang,et al.  Scanning microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography: signal, resolution, and contrast. , 2001, Medical physics.

[8]  Lihong V. Wang,et al.  Limited view thermoacoustic tomography , 2002, Proceedings of the Second Joint 24th Annual Conference and the Annual Fall Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society] [Engineering in Medicine and Biology.

[9]  W. Joines,et al.  The measured electrical properties of normal and malignant human tissues from 50 to 900 MHz. , 1994, Medical physics.

[10]  Manojit Pramanik,et al.  Image distortion in thermoacoustic tomography caused by microwave diffraction. , 2008, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[11]  Daniel R. Reinecke,et al.  Contrast enhancement of breast cancer in vivo using thermoacoustic CT at 434 MHz , 2000 .

[12]  Quan Zhou,et al.  Detection of foreign body using fast thermoacoustic tomography with a multielement linear transducer array. , 2007, Applied physics letters.

[13]  Minghua Xu,et al.  Time-domain reconstruction for thermoacoustic tomography in a spherical geometry , 2002, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[14]  M. Popovic,et al.  Spectral Difference Between Microwave Radar and Microwave-Induced Thermoacoustic Signals , 2009, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters.

[15]  D. Xing,et al.  The feasibility of using microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography for detection and evaluation of renal calculi , 2010, Physics in Medicine and Biology.

[16]  Minghua Xu,et al.  Time-domain reconstruction algorithms and numerical simulations for thermoacoustic tomography in various geometries , 2003, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[17]  Jian Li,et al.  Multifrequency Microwave-Induced Thermal Acoustic Imaging for Breast Cancer Detection , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[18]  Lihong V. Wang,et al.  Effects of acoustic heterogeneities on transcranial brain imaging with microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography. , 2008, Medical physics.

[19]  Xu Li,et al.  Microwave imaging via space-time beamforming for early detection of breast cancer , 2003 .

[20]  Allen Taflove,et al.  Computational Electrodynamics the Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method , 1995 .

[21]  James C. Lin.  Microwave Thermoelastic Tomography and Imaging , 2005 .

[22]  B T Cox,et al.  Fast calculation of pulsed photoacoustic fields in fluids using k-space methods. , 2005, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[23]  S. Hagness,et al.  Toward contrast-enhanced microwave-induced thermoacoustic imaging of breast cancer: an experimental study of the effects of microbubbles on simple thermoacoustic targets , 2009, Physics in medicine and biology.

[24]  Da Xing,et al.  Thermoacoustic molecular tomography with magnetic nanoparticle contrast agents for targeted tumor detection. , 2010, Medical physics.

[25]  Thomas Meissner,et al.  The complex dielectric constant of pure and sea water from microwave satellite observations , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[26]  L V Wang,et al.  Microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography: reconstruction by synthetic aperture. , 2001, Medical physics.

[27]  Paul M. Meaney,et al.  A clinical prototype for active microwave imaging of the breast , 2000 .

[28]  M. Lindstrom,et al.  A large-scale study of the ultrawideband microwave dielectric properties of normal, benign and malignant breast tissues obtained from cancer surgeries , 2007, Physics in medicine and biology.

[29]  Lihong V. Wang,et al.  Reconstructions in limited-view thermoacoustic tomography. , 2004, Medical physics.

[30]  Stuchly,et al.  Dielectric properties of breast carcinoma and the surrounding tissues , 1988, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[31]  Quan Zhou,et al.  Microwave-induced thermoacoustic scanning CT for high-contrast and noninvasive breast cancer imaging. , 2008, Medical physics.

[32]  Huabei Jiang,et al.  Quantitative microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography. , 2010, Medical physics.

[33]  Paul M. Meaney,et al.  Microwaves for breast cancer detection , 2003 .

[34]  Raj Mittra,et al.  A robust parallel conformal finite-difference time-domain processing package using the MPI library , 2005, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine.