Ferroelectric nanoparticles for contrast enhancement microwave tomography: Feasibility assessment for detection of lung cancer

Abstract

Microwave Tomography (MWT) has recently attracted a significant interest for its potential biomedical applications. It has been shown that MWT might be applicable for non-invasive assessment of functional and pathological conditions of various soft tissues, including tissue malignancies. Since within this imaging modality tissues are differentiated and, consequentially can be imaged based on the contrast in dielectric properties, the diagnostic potentials of MWT are based on the contrast in dielectric properties between normal and malignant tissue. However, giving complexity of MWT imaging, especially for such inhomogeneous objects as human torso, it is desirable to enhance a natural dielectric contrast. We suggest using ferroelectric nanoparticles for contrast enhancement of MWT. Here we report some of our experimental results of dielectric properties of various ferroelectric nanoparticles and further computer simulations for an assessment of an enhanced diagnostic power of MWT using a simplified chest model with lung cancer. This initial feasibility study demonstrates that ferroelectric nanoparticles might significantly improve a diagnostic power of MWT. © 2009 Springer-Verlag.