Microwave imaging for the diagnosis of stroke in pediatric patients: An initial study

Several studies and experimental trials show promising outcomes of stroke diagnosis and monitoring in adults using microwave techniques. The application of such methods to pediatric stroke has never been explored, despite the potential usefulness in many cases. The goal of this work is to start approaching this problem, with a preliminary assessment through numerical simulations. After the development of voxel-based models of stroke-affected child heads, the forward electromagnetic problem has been solved by means of a finite-difference time-domain solver in a three-dimensional configuration. Preliminary numerical reconstructions of the dielectric properties of head tissues have also been carried out by means of a nonlinear inverse-scattering procedure.