Three-dimensional Distorted Born Iterative Method Enhanced by Breast Boundary Extraction for Microwave Mammography

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Imaging
• Electromagnetics

Background:

• Microwave mammography offers advantages like portability and lower cost, positioning it as a frequent breast cancer screening alternative to X-ray methods.
• Accurate breast boundary estimation is crucial for imaging fidelity in microwave mammography, particularly when using inverse scattering algorithms.
• The Envelope method for boundary detection relies on precise time-delay estimation, which is sensitive to waveform distortions caused by antenna-breast coupling.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of breast boundary estimation accuracy on microwave mammography imaging.
• To introduce a novel waveform correction technique to mitigate antenna-breast coupling effects.
• To enhance the accuracy of three-dimensional (3-D) dielectric profile reconstruction in microwave mammography.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Envelope method for microwave-based breast boundary estimation.
• Introduced a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) based waveform correction method.
• Employed the 3-D distorted Born iterative method (DBIM) for numerical simulations using realistic breast phantoms.

Main Results:

• The proposed FDTD-based waveform correction effectively mitigates distortions caused by antenna-breast coupling.
• The method significantly enhances the accuracy of breast boundary estimation.
• 3-D numerical simulations demonstrated improved accuracy in reconstructing the dielectric profile, especially in heterogeneous breast tissues.

Conclusions:

• The FDTD-based waveform correction is a viable approach to improve microwave mammography imaging accuracy.
• Accurate breast boundary estimation is critical for reliable dielectric profile reconstruction.
• This technology holds promise for more effective and frequent breast cancer screening.