Radar based technology for non-contact monitoring of accumulation of blood in the head: A numerical study.

BACKGROUND: This theoretical study examines the use of radar to continuously monitor "accumulation of blood in the head" (ACBH) non-invasively and from a distance, after the location of a hematoma or hemorrhage in the brain was initially identified with conventional medical imaging. Current clinical practice is to monitor ABCH with multiple, subsequent, conventional medical imaging. The radar technology introduced in this study could provide a lower cost and safe alternative to multiple conventional medical imaging monitoring for ACBH.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The goal of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of using radar to monitor changes in blood volume in the brain through a numerical simulation of ACBH monitoring from remote, with a directional spiral slot antennae, in 3-D models of the brain. The focus of this study is on evaluating the effect of frequencies on the antennae reading. To that end we performed the calculations for frequencies of 100 MHz, 500 MHz and 1 GHz.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The analysis shows that the ACBH can be monitored with radar and the monitoring resolution improves with an increase in frequency, in the range studied. However, it also appears that when typical clinical dimensions of hematoma and hemorrhage are used, the variable ratio of blood volume radius and radar wavelength can bring the measurements into the Mie and Rayleigh regions of the radar cross section. In these regions there is an oscillatory change in signal with blood volume size. For some frequencies there is an increase in signal with an increase in volume while in others there is a decrease.

CONCLUSIONS: While radar can be used to monitor ACBH non-invasively and from a distance, the observed Mie region dependent oscillatory relation between blood volume size and wavelength requires further investigation. Classifiers, multifrequency algorithms or ultra-wide band radar are possible solutions that should be explored in the future.