Astrid L.H.M.W. van Lier1, Alexander J.
Raaijmakers1, David O. Brunner2, Dennis W.J. Klomp3,
K. P. Pruessmann2, Jan J.W. Lagendijk1, Cornelis A.T.
van den Berg1
1Radiotherapy, UMC Utrecht, Utrecht,
Netherlands; 2Institute for Biomedical Engineering, ETH Zurich,
Zurich, Switzerland; 3Radiology, UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
From
basic EM (electromagnetic) theory we know that the wavelength, thus the
propagating phase, depends on the permitivity and conductivity. Analysis,
based on simulations, showed that local changes in the conductivity, have the
largest effect on the propagating phase in the physiological range. We
demonstrated that it is possible to measure the effect both in phantoms and
in vivo, with results comparable to results of EM simulations. This new
contrast mechanism might be useful for the detection of conducting
malignancies, such as breast tumours.
Keywords