Microwave thermography: principles, methods and clinical applications

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Imaging
• Electromagnetics

Background:

• Thermography utilizes thermal radiation for imaging.
• Microwave thermography offers a non-invasive approach to detect subsurface temperature variations.
• Understanding its principles and limitations is crucial for medical applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the principles, operation, limitations, and medical potential of microwave thermography.
• To present findings on breast cancer detection using microwave thermography at specific frequencies.
• To evaluate the combined efficacy of microwave and infrared thermography.

Main Methods:

• Review of physical principles and operational methods of microwave thermography.
• Experimental study of breast cancer detection at 1.3 and 3.3 GHz.
• Analysis of detection rates based on frequency, time, tumor depth, and size.
• Comparative analysis with infrared thermography.

Main Results:

• Microwave thermography at 1.3 GHz achieved a true-positive rate of 0.76 with a true-negative rate of 0.63 for breast cancer detection.
• Detection performance was analyzed concerning frequency, time, tumor depth, and size.
• Combining microwave and infrared thermography increased the true-positive rate by approximately 0.1.

Conclusions:

• Microwave thermography is a viable tool for breast cancer detection, comparable to infrared thermography.
• The combination of microwave and infrared thermography enhances diagnostic accuracy.
• Further research into microwave thermography's medical applications is warranted.