Abstract
Human tissue mimicking phantoms allow development of realistic emulations platforms which are essential for design of several biomedical monitoring and diagnosis systems. This first aim of this paper is to present a novel and durable fat tissue phantom for lower microwave frequency ranges 2.5–10 GHz. The phantom is developed from the liquid propylene glycol (pure) which we found to have similar dielectric properties as the fat tissue and hence, it is suitable to be used as liquid fat phantom. Development steps of solid fat phantoms with different trials are presented to provide insight how each ingredient affect on the dielelctric properties of the mixture. Additionally, phantom’s stability over time in terms of dielectric and physical properties are evaluated. The second main aim of this paper is to present a novel approach to verify the feasibility and reliability of phantoms in practical scenarios with tissue layer model simulations. In the simulations, the antenna reflection coefficients are calculated with tissue layer models in which the dielectric properties of the fat tissue layer is varied between the proposed prolyne glycol -based fat phantoms as well as real human fat tissue values. Our goal is to show how small differences in the dielectric properties of the phantoms affect on a practical scenario which is based on antenna impedance measurements. The dielectric properties of the proposed fat phantom have very good correspondence with real fat tissue especially in the range of 5 GHz-10 GHz. Also, at lower ultrawide band (3.1–5 GHz), the difference in dielectric properties is minor. The layer model simulations show that the differences in dielectric properties do not have significant effect when modelling the practical scenarios in the frequency ranges targeted for medical applications. Hence the proposed liquid and solid fat phantoms are suitable to be used in the emulation platforms of biomedical applications.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Vrba, D., Vrba, J., Fiser, O., Cumana, J., Babak, M., Vrba Senior, J.: Applications of microwaves in medicine and biology. Recent Microwave Technol. (2022). https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105492
Khan, S., Saied, I.M., Ratnarajah, T., Arslan, T.: Evaluation of unobtrusive microwave sensors in healthcare 4.0-toward the creation of digital-twin model. Sensors (Basel). 22(21), 8519 (2022). https://doi.org/10.3390/s22218519. PMID: 36366218; PMCID: PMC9657877
Li, C., Tofighi, M., Schreurs, D., Horng, T.: Principles and Applications of RF/Microwave in Healthcare and Biosensing, Elsevier,1st Edition (2016)
Kiourti, A., et al.: Next-generation healthcare: enabling technologies for emerging bioelectromagnetics applications. IEEE Open J. Antennas Propag. 3, 363–390 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1109/OJAP.2022.3162110
Rafique, U., Pisa, S., Cicchetti, R., Testa, O., Cavagnaro, M.: Ultra-wideband antennas for biomedical imaging applications: a survey. Sensors. 22(9), 3230 (2022). https://doi.org/10.3390/s22093230
Särestöniemi, M., Reponen, J., Myllymäki, S., Myllylä, T.: Remote diagnostics and monitoring using microwave technique – improving healthcare in rural areas and in exceptional situations, under review for FinJeHew journal (2023)
Costanzo, S., Cioffi, V., Qureshi, A.M., Borgia, A.: Gel-Like human mimicking phantoms: realization procedure, dielectric characterization and experimental validations on microwave wearable body sensors. Biosensors (Basel). 11(4), 111 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3390/bios11040111.PMID:33917777;PMCID:PMC8068187
Garrett, J., Fear, E.: Stable and flexible materials to mimic the dielectric properties of human soft tissues. IEEE Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett. 13, 599–602 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1109/LAWP.2014.2312925
Castelló-Palacios, S., Garcia-Pardo, C., Fornes-Leal, A., Cardona, N., Vallés-Lluch, A.: Tailor-made tissue phantoms based on acetonitrile solutions for microwave applications up to 18 GHz. IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech. 64(11), 3987–3994 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1109/TMTT.2016.2608890
Pollacco, D.A., Conti, M.C., Farrugia, L., Wismayer, P.S., Farina, L., Sammut, C.V.: Dielectric properties of muscle and adipose tissue-mimicking solutions for microwave medical imaging applications. Phys. Med. Biol. 64(9), 095009 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6560/ab0dda. PMID: 30844769
Di Meo, S., et al.: Tissue-mimicking materials for breast phantoms up to 50 GHz. Phys Med Biol. 64(5), 055006 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6560/aafeec. PMID: 30650384
Lazebnik, M., Madsen, E.L., Frank, G.R., Hagness, S.C.: Tissuemimicking phantom materials for narrowband and ultrawideband microwave applications. Phys. Med. Biol. 50(18), 4245–4258 (2005)
Porter, E., Fakhoury, J., Oprisor, R., Coates, M., Popovic, M.: Improved tissue phantoms for experimental validation of microwave breast cancer detection. In: Proceedings of the Fourth European Conference on antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2010), pp. 1-5. Barcelona, Spain (2010)
Martellosio, A., et al.: Dielectric properties characterization from 0.5 to 50 GHz of breast cancer tissues. IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech. 65(3), 998–1011 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1109/TMTT.2016.2631162
Di Meo, S., et al.: Realization of tissue mimicking materials for breast phantoms using waste oil hardeners. In: 13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2019), 31 March-5 April (2019)
IT IS dielectric properties (2022). https://www.itis.ethz.ch/virtual-population/tissue-properties/databaseM
Speag DAK SPEAG, Schmid & Partner Engineering AG
Dassault Simulia CST Suite. https://www.3ds.com/
Orfanidis, S.J.: Electromagnetic Waves and Antennas (2002) 2016. http://www.ece.rutgers.edu/~orfanidi/ewa/
Tuovinen, T., Yekeh Yazdandoost, K., Iinatti, J.: Comparison of the performance of two different UWB antennas for the use in WBAN on-body coimmunications. In: European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP2012), pp. 2271-3374 (2012)
Särestöniemi, M., Wisanmongkol, J., Taparugsanagorn, A., Hämäläinen, M., Iinatti, J.: Radio channel model for WBAN capsule endoscopy with anatomical voxel models. IEEE Access (2023)
Särestöniemi, M., Reponen, J., Sonkki, M., Myllymäki, S., Pomalaza-Ráez, C., Tervonen O., Myllylä T.: Breast cancer detection feasibility with UWB flexible antennas on wearable monitoring vest. In: TELMED2022, pp. 751–756. Italy (2022)
Acknowledgement
This research is funded by Academy of Finland Profi6 funding, 6G-Enabling Sustainable Society (University of Oulu, Finland), which is greatly acknowledged.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering
About this paper
Cite this paper
Särestöniemi, M., Dessai, R., Myllymäki, S., Myllylä, T. (2023). A Novel Durable Fat Tissue Phantom for Microwave Based Medical Monitoring Applications. In: Chen, Y., Yao, D., Nakano, T. (eds) Bio-inspired Information and Communications Technologies. BICT 2023. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 512. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43135-7_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43135-7_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-43134-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-43135-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)