Brain injuries represent a critical situation, where both detection and monitoring should be quick and accurate at the same time. Microwave techniques are thus gaining attention in the diagnostic process of these diseases. However, the detection of inhomogeneities and variations inside the human brain by using electromagnetic fields at microwave frequencies is a very challenging inverse problem. An innovative hybrid microwave imaging method is introduced in this contribution, which combines the benefits of a fast qualitative processing technique with an accurate tomographic reconstruction of the dielectric properties of the human head. This method has been successfully applied to obtain microwave images from both synthetic data and laboratory measurements. Numerical simulations involve three-dimensional realistic models of stroke-affected heads, whereas simplified cylindrical phantoms have been exploited for the experimental validation of the approach. In both conditions, the proposed technique yields promising results, which may be considered a preliminary step towards the realization of a clinical imaging prototype.

中文翻译：

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微波通过混合成像方法检测脑损伤

脑损伤代表了一种紧急情况，在这种情况下，检测和监视应同时快速而准确。因此，微波技术在这些疾病的诊断过程中受到关注。但是，通过使用微波频率的电磁场来检测人脑内部的不均匀性和变化是非常具有挑战性的反问题。在此贡献中引入了一种创新的混合微波成像方法，该方法将快速定性处理技术的优点与人头介电特性的精确层析重建相结合。该方法已成功应用于从合成数据和实验室测量中获得微波图像。数值模拟涉及受行程影响的头部的三维逼真的模型，而简化的圆柱体模已被用于该方法的实验验证。在这两种情况下，所提出的技术都能产生令人鼓舞的结果，这可能被认为是实现临床成像原型的初步步骤。