• Janani, Azin
• Keating, Shelley
• Khosravi-Farsani, Mojtaba
• Rezaeieh, Sasan Ahdi
• Darvazehban, Amin

Abstract

Hepatic steatosis is one of the most prevalent chronic liver conditions. Traditional non-invasive imaging modalities are not suitable for observation and treatment evaluation of this disease. Hence, this study proposes an electromagnetic technique to assist in observation and detection of hepatic steatosis. Effective permittivity contrast between left and right sides of the torso is exploited for the aim of detection. Firstly, the transfer functions of the transmitter-receiver paths on the left and right sides of the torso are modeled using a 2D line source approximation to form a non-linear equation system. Secondly, the system is solved with respect to the vector of effective permittivity values in a successive iteration. Thirdly, the estimated permittivity values are stacked together to create a dispersive permittivity curve. Permittivity modeling and statistical frequency selection are performed to remove outliers. Finally, the left/right effective permittivity contrast is calculated over the selected samples. The method is validated by realistic computer simulations and human measurements. In both scenarios, left/right permittivity contrast is higher and distinguishable in steatotic livers, which have 15% more diffused fat than healthy cases. The results verify the potential of electromagnetic systems, which are safe, low-cost, and portable, in the detection of hepatic steatosis.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• simulation