title: A Wearable Microwave Antenna Array for Time-Domain Breast Tumor Screening.
abstract: In this work, we present a clinical prototype with a wearable patient interface for microwave breast cancer detection. The long-term aim of the prototype is a breast health monitoring application. The system operates using multistatic time-domain pulsed radar, with 16 flexible antennas embedded into a bra. Unlike the previously reported, table-based prototype with a rigid cup-like holder, the wearable one requires no immersion medium and enables simple localization of breast surface. In comparison with the table-based prototype, the wearable one is also significantly more cost-effective and has a smaller footprint. To demonstrate the improved functionality of the wearable prototype, we here report the outcome of daily testing of the new, wearable prototype on a healthy volunteer over a 28-day period. The resulting data (both signals and reconstructed images) is compared to that obtained with our table-based prototype. We show that the use of the wearable prototype has improved the quality of collected volunteer data by every investigated measure. This work demonstrates the proof-of-concept for a wearable breast health monitoring array, which can be further optimized in the future for use with patients with various breast sizes and tissue densities.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Porter
authors.forename: Hadi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bahrami
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Santorelli
authors.forename: Benoit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gosselin
authors.forename: Leslie A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Rusch
authors.forename: Milica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Popovic
mesh_terms: D001940:Breast / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003020:Clothing; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008872:Microwaves / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008875:Middle Aged; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods