Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal.
Instituto de Biofísica e Engenharia Biomédica, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal.
Sensors (Basel). 2020 Apr 4;20(7):2029. doi: 10.3390/s20072029.
The development of 3D anthropomorphic head and neck phantoms is of crucial and timely importance to explore novel imaging techniques, such as radar-based MicroWave Imaging (MWI), which have the potential to accurately diagnose Cervical Lymph Nodes (CLNs) in a neoadjuvant and non-invasive manner. We are motivated by a significant diagnostic blind-spot regarding mass screening of LNs in the case of head and neck cancer. The timely detection and selective removal of metastatic CLNs will prevent tumor cells from entering the lymphatic and blood systems and metastasizing to other body regions. The present paper describes the developed phantom generator which allows the anthropomorphic modelling of the main biological tissues of the cervical region, including CLNs, as well as their dielectric properties, for a frequency range from 1 to 10 GHz, based on Magnetic Resonance images. The resulting phantoms of varying complexity are well-suited to contribute to all stages of the development of a radar-based MWI device capable of detecting CLNs. Simpler models are essential since complexity could hinder the initial development stages of MWI devices. Besides, the diversity of anthropomorphic phantoms resulting from the developed phantom generator can be explored in other scientific contexts and may be useful to other medical imaging modalities.
开发 3D 拟人化头颈部体模对于探索新型成像技术至关重要,例如基于雷达的微波成像(MWI)技术,该技术有望以新辅助和非侵入性的方式准确诊断颈部淋巴结(CLN)。我们的动机是在头颈部癌症的淋巴结大规模筛查中存在明显的诊断盲点。及时检测和选择性切除转移性 CLN 可以防止肿瘤细胞进入淋巴和血液系统并转移到身体其他部位。本文介绍了开发的体模生成器,该生成器允许对颈部区域的主要生物组织(包括 CLN)进行拟人化建模,并根据磁共振成像(MRI)在 1 至 10 GHz 的频率范围内对其介电特性进行建模。生成的具有不同复杂度的体模非常适合为基于雷达的能够检测 CLN 的 MWI 设备的所有开发阶段做出贡献。由于复杂性可能会阻碍 MWI 设备的初始开发阶段,因此更简单的模型是必不可少的。此外,开发的体模生成器产生的各种拟人化体模可以在其他科学领域中进行探索,并且可能对其他医学成像方式有用。