Microwave Imaging for Medical Diagnostic Applications: an Introduction from Theory to Practical Aspects

Biography

Lorenzo Crocco, SMIEEE’10, is a Senior Researcher with the Institute for the Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment, National Research Council of Italy (IREA-CNR). His scientific activities mainly concern theoretical aspects and applications of electromagnetic scattering, with a focus on diagnostic and therapeutic uses of EM fields, through-the-wall radar and GPR. On these topics, he has published more than 100 papers, given keynote talks and led or participated to research projects. He has served as Guest Editor for international journals and is currently associate editor for the IEEE Journal of Electromagnetics, RF and Microwaves in Medicine and Biology (IEEE J-ERM). He has co-edited the book “Emerging Electromagnetic Technologi currently es for Brain Diseases Diagnostics, Monitoring and Therapy”. From 2009 to 2012, he has adjunct professor at the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria, Italy, teaching Electromagnetic Waves and Non-invasive EM Diagnostics. In 2018, he was habilitated as full professor of Electromagnetic Fields by the Italian Ministry of Research and University. Since 2013, he has been an instructor for the European School of Antennas (ESOA), giving lectures on inverse scattering and biomedical applications of MWI. Dr. Crocco is a Fellow of The Electromagnetics Academy (TEA), and a recipient of the "Barzilai" Award for Young Scientists from the Italian Electromagnetic Society (2004). In 2009, he was awarded among the best under 40 scientists of CNR. From 2013-2017, Dr Crocco served as an elected Working Group Leader for the MiMed COST action (TD1301) on microwave imaging, and he is currently a member of the MyWAVE COST action (CA17115) on electromagnetic hyperthermia.

Panagiotis Kosmas, SMIEEE’13, joined King’s College London (KCL) as a Lecturer in 2008, and is currently a Reader at KCL’s Department of Informatics. Prior to his appointment, he held research positions at the Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (CenSSIS), Boston, USA, the University of Loughborough, UK, and the Computational Electromagnetics Group, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. His expertise in microwave imaging includes radar and tomographic methods, and he has pioneered the use of time reversal for microwave breast cancer detection. He has over 90 journal and conference publications on microwave imaging and related areas. He is also the co-founder of Mediwise Ltd, an award-winning UK-based SME focusing on the use of EM waves for medical applications. Beyond microwave medical imaging, Dr Kosmas’ research interests include computational electromagnetics with application to other areas of subsurface sensing, antenna design, and inverse problems theory and techniques. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on EM theory, antennas and propagation, electronics, and stochastic processes. He has co-authored a chapter for a Springer monograph on microwave medical imaging titled “An Introduction to Microwave Imaging for Breast Cancer Detection”. From 2013-2017, Dr Kosmas served as an elected Working Group Leader for the MiMed COST action (TD1301) on microwave imaging, and he is currently a member of the MyWAVE COST action (CA17115) on electromagnetic hyperthermia.

Abstract

As medical imaging applications of electromagnetic fields are gaining interest in the EURAAP community, there is a strong need to introduce microwave engineers to the theory and challenges in the practical implementation of microwave imaging (MWI). This course aims to achieve this goal by introducing MWI theory in a simple manner, and then focusing on emerging applications, (e.g. breast cancer and stroke diagnosis). The instructors will use the experience gained from delivering the course in three previous EuCAP meetings, to offer a tutorial that can be useful not only to newcomers, but also to more experienced researchers looking for insight into the challenges of MWI in life sciences. The course will also serve as a training course for a new H2020 Marie Curie Initial Training Network (MC-ITN) project in microwave imaging, EMERALD. The material will be mostly covered with PowerPoint slides, but answers to questions and general discussion will be a key part of the course. The instructors will pay specific attention to answering questions and explaining how the (sometimes complex) mathematical concepts can be implemented in practice via numerical codes. A whiteboard may be used to cover complex mathematical concepts and explanations if necessary.

Course Outline

Part I: Introduction & Theoretical Background

- Overview of emerging microwave medical imaging applications, which are based on the methods presented in the course. This will emphasize the need for microwave imaging and will motivate the material covered in the course. 

- Background theory on microwave imaging including a review of fundamental theory of inverse scattering problems, delivered in a simple manner that does not require strong mathematical background.

- Q&As and Break

Part II: From theory to implementation - the microwave imaging practitioner toolbox with examples

- Linear model-based inversion and its application to differential imaging for clinical follow-up, and contrast enhanced microwave imaging

- Non-linear microwave tomography methods (Gauss-Newton methods, contrast-source inversion) for quantitative imaging of human tissues’ dielectric properties

- Emerging topics in MWI: sparsity-based imaging techniques, projection-basis regularization

Part III: Examples of reconstructing experimental data with different approaches