Dielectric properties of tissue mimicking solutions for applications in breast microwave imaging

Abstract

The aim of this this work was to characterize the dielectric properties of tissue mimicking solutions for applications in breast microwave imaging. Such solutions arc required to assess the feasibility of the imaging modality experimentally, especially at prototype phase. To fulfil this aim, first the correlation between the dielectric properties of biological tissues and their different states of hydration were observed through in vivo and ex vivo dielectric measurements. Afterwards, the hydration fractions of said measured biological tissues were determined in order to accurately model the dielectric properties of biological tissues from mixture equations. Following results from said mixture equations, solutions were synthesized utilizing concentrations of BSA dissolved in PBS and Ringers solutions in order to mimic in vivo and ex vivo muscle tissues.