A novel dual calibration technique for microwave early breast tumour detection in MR images-based model. Issue 1 (2nd January 2016) - Wang, Liang
ABSTRACT: A novel dual calibration confocal imaging technique is presented for microwave early breast tumour detection. The physical basis for microwave breast tumour detection is the contrast in electrical properties of normal tissues and tumours. Confocal imaging technique employs short pulse signals to illuminate breast model from a number of antennas over skin surface, and backscattered energy is collected to analyse the internal structure. In this research, a novel calibration technique is developed to remove artefacts and amplify the tumour responses, and a doubling of tumour response data is obtained without the prior knowledge of tumour location. The internal structure of the breast model is built based on magnetic resonance (MR) images, and the proposed method is verified through computer simulations. The imaging results show that a small tumour with 3 millimetres in diameter has been successfully detected using this method. Though the tumour response is weaker than the residual artefact in small tumour scene, the method can keep noise pixels from overlapping and improve its robustness. Details steps of the method are discussed in this research.