Phantom setup for precise perfusion measurement by microwave

Abstract

Toward the objective of using microwave methods to measure blood perfusion, a setup is constructed to obtain thermal washout curves after microwave heating. The setup features an omnidirectional flow in a porous medium irradiated by microwave power. Flow levels in the range of 0-5 mL/min can be precisely set. Such small flow levels realistically correspond to the blood perfusion within tissues. The medium's temperature is raised by 0.2 °C, through irradiating 1.1 W at 900 MHz. Results indicate that small flow levels could be distinctly differentiated by the thermal decay curve. However, the observed heating depth extending beyond 2 cm indicates that higher frequencies may be necessary for shallower perfusion measurements (e.g. in skin).