International Journal of Antennas and Propagation
Volume 2008 (2008), Article ID 170242, 1 page
doi:10.1155/2008/170242
Editorial
New Electromagnetic Methods and Applications of Antennas in Biomedicine
1Departments of Radiology and Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
2Department of Electrical Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, AB, T2N1N4, Canada
3Department of Mathematics, The University of Queensland, Queensland 4072, Australia
Received 16 July 2008; Accepted 16 July 2008
Electromagnetic devices and techniques are of increasing
interest and clinical utility in a variety of medical applications.
Hyperthermia may be utilized to heat tissues using electromagnetic fields as
part of cancer treatment. Many clinically available and emerging imaging
techniques have also relied on electromagnetic concepts. Tissue-implanted
devices wirelessly communicate information from the interior to the exterior of
the body and vice versa. Developing and
optimizing use of these technologies involves a sophisticated understanding of
the interactions between electromagnetic fields and tissues. This encompasses
the theoretical, computational, and experimental challenges. This Special Issue on New Electromagnetic
Methods and Applications of Antennas in Biomedicine is devoted to reporting the
latest research in this growing interdisciplinary field.
In this issue, the first two papers explore approaches to
imaging at microwave frequencies for two different applications: stroke and breast cancer detection. The third paper examines a practical issue
for breast imaging, namely, selection of an appropriate medium to immerse the antennas and
breast. A study of antenna performance in immersion media is presented in the
fourth paper in order to better understand issues such as variations in antenna
response with immersion depth. The fifth paper presents a design for
ultra-wideband antennas for microwave imaging, and analyzes the performances of
these antennas in a realistic scenario. The sixth paper shifts the focus of the
issue from imaging to tissue-implanted antennas. In the next three papers, the
focus is shifted to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Antenna theory is applied to design a
radiofrequency (RF) coil for high-field MRI applications in the seventh paper.
The final two papers report on electromagnetic simulation methods used in MRI.
Overall, the papers in this issue represent a broad spectrum of work in new
electromagnetic methods and applications of antennas in biomedicine.
We would like to thank many people whose efforts made this
special issue possible. First, we thank
the authors for their response to our initial call for papers. Second, we thank the team at IJAP for their
ongoing support. Finally, we would like
to acknowledge the significant contributions of the reviewers who provided
feedback on multiple versions of the papers.
Tamer Ibrahim
Elise Fear
Stuart Crozier