[Noncontact and noninvasive microwave biological measurements]

Without contact probes, the signals of small human body surface movements were obtained with microwave Doppler sensors using a two-phase interferometric method. The signals were then compared with mechanocardiographic records routinely obtained by contact transducers. Furthermore, this system was applied to patients wearing clothes. The study subjects consisted of 20 cardiac patients and 10 normal controls. 1. The microwave signals obtained in the cervical and precordial regions were similar to those of the mechanocardiographic recordings, such as the carotid pulse and jugular venous pulse tracings and the apexcardiogram. There was a significant correlation between left ventricular ejection time (LVET) obtained by microwave Doppler sensors and that by the carotid pulse tracing (r = 0.95). 2. The signals of the microwave Doppler sensor were obtained from the patients wearing clothes. The heart beat components were distinguished from respiratory motion and patients' movements using band-pass filters. These results suggest that this method is capable of evaluating cardiac function noninvasively and thus has a distinct advantage in the field of non-contact measurements.