UC Berkeley

Objective

An experimental study for testing a simple robust algorithm on data derived from an electromagnetic radiation device that can detect small changes in the tissue/fluid ratio in a realistic head configuration.

Methods

Changes in the scattering parameters (S₂₁) of an inductive coil resulting from injections of chicken blood in the 0-18 ml range into calf brain tissue in a human anatomical skull were measured over a 100-1,000 MHz frequency range.

Results

An algorithm that combines amplitude and phase results was found to detect changes in the tissue/fluid ratio with 90% accuracy. An algorithm that estimated the injected blood volume was found to have a 1-4 ml average error. This demonstrates the possibility of the inductive coil-based device to possess a practical ability to detect a change in the tissue/fluid ratio in the head.

Significance

This study is an important step towards the goal of building an inexpensive and safe device that can detect an early brain hemorrhagic stroke.