High-Frequency Excitation and Surface Temperature Analysis of Breast Tissue for Detection of Anomaly

Abstract

Techniques used for breast cancer detection usually incorporate Infrared Thermography (IRT) to locate abnormal hotspots or asymmetry in a thermal texture map. This can be unreliable due to various individual differences from one person to another. In this paper, a detection method that is independent of the aforementioned limitations is proposed. This technique is a combination of thermal imaging and high-frequency excitation. This technique is based on the fact that the differences in electromagnetic and thermal properties of abnormal (malignant) tissue and the surrounding normal tissue will result in a noticeable difference in temperature increase after exposure to high-frequency excitation. A three-dimensional (3-D) finite-element method (FEM) has been used to simulate the thermal behavior of breast tissue exposed to antenna excitations. Finally, the effectiveness of this technique was tested in a series of experiments using a life-sized breast phantom.