Experimental tissue mimicking human head phantom for estimation of stroke using IC-CF-DMAS algorithm in microwave...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Imaging
• Electromagnetics

Background:

• Accurate brain imaging requires reliable phantoms that mimic biological tissue properties.
• Existing phantoms may not fully replicate the complex electrical characteristics of diverse head tissues.
• Developing stable and reproducible phantoms is crucial for validating advanced imaging algorithms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To fabricate and characterize a tissue-mimicking head phantom for brain stroke detection.
• To validate the phantom's electrical properties against real human head tissues.
• To assess the performance of the iteratively corrected coherence factor delay-multiply-and-sum (IC-CF-DMAS) algorithm using the developed phantom.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of phantom elements using chemical mixtures to emulate electrical properties of CSF, dura, gray matter, white matter, and blood/stroke.
• Measurement of electrical properties (1-4 GHz) using an open-ended dielectric coaxial probe and vector network analyzer.
• Application of the IC-CF-DMAS algorithm for image reconstruction and stroke detection within the phantom.

Main Results:

• The developed phantom elements successfully mimic the electrical properties of real head tissues.
• The IC-CF-DMAS algorithm effectively detected stroke within the tissue-mimicking phantom.
• The phantom demonstrated time-stability over a week, with measurements showing good agreement with theoretical results.

Conclusions:

• The tissue-mimicking head phantom is a stable and reliable tool for evaluating brain stroke detection techniques.
• The phantom serves as a valuable supplement to real head tissue in research and development of medical imaging systems.
• The validated IC-CF-DMAS algorithm shows efficacy in reconstructing stroke images from the developed phantom.