volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

Time reversal imaging method based on full wave numerical technique for likely breast tumors biological tissue in the Microwave-Induced Thermo-Acoustic Tomography (MITAT) system is discussed. In this paper, the mechanism of microwave-induced thermo-acoustic is strictly described based on thermodynamics and thermo-diffusion principles; the equivalent relationship between the absorbed microwave energy distribution of the biological tissue and the induced thermo-acoustic source distribution is used as the basis of the imaging algorithm. Due to its unique noise suppression feature and the stability of the algorithm, the Time Reversal Method (TRM) based on the Pseudospectral Time-Domain (PSTD) technique is applied to image heterogeneous phantom tissues from low Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR) thermo-acoustic signals. Thereafter, an integrated MITAT prototype system is presented to obtain the thermo-acoustic signals from some biologic tissue with millimeter scale. The proposed TRM method is based on PSTD technique produced two-dimensional images, presented to study the performances of the MITAT in terms of contrast and resolution. These images prove predominant advantages in both contrast and resolution compared with conventional microwave and ultrasound imaging systems for malignant tumor detection. Based on the current results, our TRM-PSTD MITAT system provides evidence to predict breast tumor in an early stage and millimeter scale.

1. Jemal, A., R. Siegel, J. Xu, and E. Ward, "Cancer statistics," A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Vol. 60, No. 5, 277-300, 2010.
doi:10.3322/caac.20073

2. Veronesi, U., N. Cascinelli, L. Mariani, M. Greco, R. Saccozzi, A. Luini, M. Aguilar, and E. Marubini, "Twenty-year follow-up of a randomized study comparing breast-conserving surgery with radical mastectomy for early breast cancer," N. Engl. J. Med., Vol. 347, 1227-1232, 2002.
doi:10.1056/NEJMoa020989

3. Guo, T. C., W. W. Guo, and L. E. Larsen, "Microwave-induced thermo-acoustic effect in dielectrics and its coupling to external medium --- A thermo dynamical formulation," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., Vol. 32, No. 8, 835-843, 1984.
doi:10.1109/TMTT.1984.1132780

4. Kruger, R. A., W. L. Kiser, D. R. Reinecke, G. A. Kruger, and R. L. Eisenhart, "Thermoacoustic computed tomography of the breast at 434 MHz," IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest, Vol. 2, 591-595, 1999.

5. Xu, M. and L. V. Wang, "RF-induced thermo-acoutic tomography," Proceedings of the Second Joint EMBS/BMES Conference, 1211-1212, 2002.

6. Zeng, L., D. Xing, H. Gu, and D. Yang, "A fast microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography system for imaging of biological tissues," Fourth International Conference on Photonics and Imaging in Biology and Medicine, Proc. of SPIE, Vol. 6047, 60470K, 2006.
doi:10.1117/12.709956

7. Anastasio, M. A., K. Wang, J. Zhang, G. A. Kruger, D. Reinecke, and R. A. Kruger, "Improving limited-view reconstruction in photoacoustic tomography by incorporating a priori boundary information," Proc. of SPIE, Vol. 6856, 68561B.1, 2008.

8. Lim, , K. H., J. H. Lee, and Q. H. Liu, "Thermoacoustic tomography forward modeling with the spectral element method," Medical Physics, Vol. 35, No. 1, 4-12, 2008.
doi:10.1118/1.2805478

9. Joines, W. T., Y. Zhang, C. Li, and R. L. Jirtle, "The measured electrical properties of normal and malignant human tissues from 50 to 900 MHz," Am. Assoc. Phys. Med., Vol. 21, 547-551, 1994.

10. Paulsen, K. D. and P. M. Meaney, Alternative Breast Imaging, Springer Press, 2006.

11. Fink, M., "Time reversal of ultrasonic fields. I. Basic principles," EEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, Vol. 39, No. 5, 555-567, 1992.
doi:10.1109/58.156174

12. Fouque, J. P. and G. Papanicolaou, Wave Propagation and Time Reversal in Randomly Layered Media, Springer Press, 2007.

13. Botrth, D. E. and C. A. Cain, "Theoretical analysis of acoustic signal generation in materials irradiated with microwave energy," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., Vol. 25, No. 11, 944-953, 1997.
doi:10.1109/TMTT.1977.1129246

14. Liu, Q. H., "The PSTD algorithm: A time-domain method combining the pseudospectral technique and perfectly matched layers," J. Acous. Soc. Am., Vol. 101, 3182, May 1997.

15. Liu, Q. H., "The PSTD algorithm: A time-domain method requiring only two cells per wavelength," Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, Vol. 15, No. 3, 158-165, 1997.
doi:10.1002/(SICI)1098-2760(19970620)15:3<158::AID-MOP11>3.0.CO;2-3

16. Wojcik, G., B. Fomberg, R. Waag, L. Carcione, J. Mould, L. Nikodym, and T. Driscoll, "Pseudo-spectral methods for large-scale bioacoustic models," IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium, Vol. 2, 1501-1507, Oct. 1997.

17. Kruger, R. A., L. Kiser, Jr, D. R. Reinecke, G. A. Kruger, and R. L. Eisenhart, "Thermoacoustic computed tomography of the breast at 434 MHz," IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest, Vol. 2, 591-594, 1999.

18. Nasoni, R. L., S. C. Liew, P. G. Halverson, and T. Bowen, "Thermoacoustic images generated by a 2450MHz portable source and applicator," IEEE 1985 Ultrasonics Symposium, 899-904, 1985.
doi:10.1109/ULTSYM.1985.198643

19. Xu, M. and L. V. Wang, "Pulsed-microwave-induced thermo-acoustic tomography: Filtered backprojection in a circular measurement configuration," Medical Physics, Vol. 29, No. 8, 1661-1670, 2002.
doi:10.1118/1.1493778

20. Chen, G.-P., W.-B. Yu, Z.-Q. Zhao, Z.-P. Nie, and Q.-H. Liu, "The design of electromagnetically induced thermo-acoustic system and the signal processing using wavelet analysis with a soft thresholding method," Chinese of Journal Electronics, Vol. 36, No. 6, 1130-1134, 2008.

21. Chen, G., Z. Zhao, W. Gong, Z. Nie, and Q.-H. Liu, "The development of the microwave-induced thermo-acoustic tomography prototype system," Chinese Science Bulletin, Vol. 52, No. 12, 1786-1789, 2009.

22. Chen, G. P., Z. Q. Zhao, Z. P. Nie, and Q. H. Liu, "A computational study of time reversal mirror technique for microwave-induced thermo-acoustic tomography," Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, Vol. 22, No. 12, 2191-2204, 2008.
doi:10.1163/156939308787522555

Dr. Guoping Chen

Dr. Xin Wang

Prof. Qing Huo Liu