title: The correlation of in vivo and ex vivo tissue dielectric properties to validate electromagnetic breast imaging: initial clinical experience.
abstract: Electromagnetic (EM) breast imaging provides low-cost, safe and potentially a more specific modality for cancer detection than conventional imaging systems. A primary difficulty in validating these EM imaging modalities is that the true dielectric property values of the particular breast being imaged are not readily available on an individual subject basis. Here, we describe our initial experience in seeking to correlate tomographic EM imaging studies with discrete point spectroscopy measurements of the dielectric properties of breast tissue. The protocol we have developed involves measurement of in vivo tissue properties during partial and full mastectomy procedures in the operating room (OR) followed by ex vivo tissue property recordings in the same locations in the excised tissue specimens in the pathology laboratory immediately after resection. We have successfully applied all of the elements of this validation protocol in a series of six women with cancer diagnoses. Conductivity and permittivity gauged from ex vivo samples over the frequency range 100 Hz-8.5 GHz are found to be similar to those reported in the literature. A decrease in both conductivity and permittivity is observed when these properties are gauged from ex vivo samples instead of in vivo. We present these results in addition to a case study demonstrating how discrete point spectroscopy measurements of the tissue can be correlated and used to validate EM imaging studies.
authors.affiliation: Thayer School of Engineering, Darmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA. ryan.halter@dartmouth.edu
authors.forename: Ryan J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Halter
authors.forename: Tian
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Paul M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Meaney
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hartov
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Barth
authors.forename: Kari M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Rosenkranz
authors.forename: Wendy A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Wells
authors.forename: Christine A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Kogel
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Borsic
authors.forename: Elizabeth J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Rizzo
authors.forename: Keith D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Paulsen
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D017097:Electric Impedance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008408:Mastectomy / Q000379:methods; D008872:Microwaves; D008875:Middle Aged; D013057:Spectrum Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D014054:Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*