Proof-of-Concept of the Incorporation of Ultrasound-Derived Structural Information Into Microwave Radar Imaging

Abstract

In this work, we develop a method of extracting structural information of the breast from ultrasound signals and integrating this information into microwave radar based image reconstructions. The synergistic combination of these modalities exploits the dielectric contrast between breast tissues at microwave frequencies and short wavelengths of ultrasound signals to enhance the imaging resolution and target localization accuracy. A key feature of this approach is its ability to detect fine structural details of both the breast exterior and interior, which may provide insight into the distribution of breast tissues and can be used as a context for results interpretation. The methods are tested through numerical simulations using anatomically realistic numerical breast models derived from magnetic resonance imaging scans and the improvements in performance are quantified using metrics.