King's College London

TY - JOUR

T1 - Real-time Passive Brain Monitoring System Using Near-Field Microwave Radiometry

AU - Groumpas, Evangelos

AU - Koutsoupidou, Maria

AU - Karanasiou, Irene

AU - Papageorgiou, Charalabos

AU - Uzunoglu, Nikolaos

PY - 2020/1/1

Y1 - 2020/1/1

N2 - Near-field microwave radiometry has emerged as a tool for real-time passive monitoring of local brain activation, possibly attributed to local changes in blood flow that correspond to temperature and/or conductivity changes. The aim of this study is to design and evaluate a prototype system based on microwave radiometry intended to detect local changes of temperature and conductivity in depth in brain tissues. A novel radiometric system that comprises a four port total power Dicke-switch sensitive receiver that operates at 1.5 GHz has been developed. Methods and Results: The efficacy of the system was assessed through simulation and experiment on brain tissue mimicking phantoms under different setup conditions, where temperature and conductivity changes were accurately detected. In order to validate the radiometer's capability to sense low power signals occurring spontaneously from regions in the human brain, the somatosensory cortices of one volunteer were measured under pain-inducing psychophysiological conditions. The promising results from the initial in vivo measurements prove the system's potential for more extensive investigative trials. Conclusion and Significance: The significance of this study lies on the development of a compact and sensitive radiometer for totally passive monitoring of local brain activation as a potential complementary tool for contributing to the research effort for investigating brain functionality.

AB - Near-field microwave radiometry has emerged as a tool for real-time passive monitoring of local brain activation, possibly attributed to local changes in blood flow that correspond to temperature and/or conductivity changes. The aim of this study is to design and evaluate a prototype system based on microwave radiometry intended to detect local changes of temperature and conductivity in depth in brain tissues. A novel radiometric system that comprises a four port total power Dicke-switch sensitive receiver that operates at 1.5 GHz has been developed. Methods and Results: The efficacy of the system was assessed through simulation and experiment on brain tissue mimicking phantoms under different setup conditions, where temperature and conductivity changes were accurately detected. In order to validate the radiometer's capability to sense low power signals occurring spontaneously from regions in the human brain, the somatosensory cortices of one volunteer were measured under pain-inducing psychophysiological conditions. The promising results from the initial in vivo measurements prove the system's potential for more extensive investigative trials. Conclusion and Significance: The significance of this study lies on the development of a compact and sensitive radiometer for totally passive monitoring of local brain activation as a potential complementary tool for contributing to the research effort for investigating brain functionality.

KW - Microwave radiometry

KW - measurement of local brain temperature and/or conductivity variations

KW - non-invasive passive measurement

KW - real-time monitoring

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85077173492&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1109/TBME.2019.2909994

DO - 10.1109/TBME.2019.2909994

M3 - Article

C2 - 30969913

VL - 67

SP - 158

EP - 165

JO - IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering

JF - IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering

SN - 0018-9294

IS - 1

M1 - 8684888

ER -