title: Microwave tomography of extremities: 1. Dedicated 2D system and physiological signatures.
abstract: Microwave tomography (MWT) is a novel imaging modality which might be applicable for non-invasive assessment of functional and pathological conditions of biological tissues. Imaging of the soft tissue of extremities is one of its potential applications. The feasibility of this technology for such applications was demonstrated earlier. This is the first of two companion papers focused on an application of MWT for imaging of the extremity's soft tissues. The goal of this study is to assess the technical performance of the developed 2D MWT system dedicated for imaging of functional and pathological conditions of the extremity's soft tissues. Specifically, the system's performance was tested by its ability to detect signals associated with physiological activity and soft tissue interventions (circulatory related changes, blood flow reduction and a simulated compartmental syndrome)--the so-called physiological signatures. The developed 2D MWT system dedicated to the imaging of animal extremities demonstrates good technical performance allowing for stable and predictable data acquisition with reasonable agreement between the experimentally measured electromagnetic (EM) field and the simulated EM field within a measurement domain. Using the system, we were able to obtain physiological signatures associated with systolic versus diastolic phases of circulation in an animal extremity, reperfusion versus occlusion phases of the blood supply to the animal's extremity and a compartment syndrome. The imaging results are presented and discussed in the second companion paper.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Keele University, ISTM, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 7QB, UK. s.semenov@pmed.keele.ac.uk
authors.forename: Serguei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Semenov
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kellam
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sizov
authors.forename: Alexei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nazarov
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Bindu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.forename: Andrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pavlovsky
authors.forename: Vitaly
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Posukh
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Quinn
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005121:Extremities / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008872:Microwaves; D013552:Swine; D014054:Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation*