Ultra Wideband-Based Imaging Technology for Stroke Detection

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Olaf Dössel; Professor Dr.-Ing. Thomas Zwick
• Subject Area: Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering ; Medical Physics, Biomedical Technology
• Term: from 2012 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 221837833

This research is about to address the early detection and differentiating diagnosis of stroke - one of the leading cause of human disability and the second cause of death worldwide. Complementary diagnosis solutions via fast, reliable, cost effective and portable systems will be designed and realized. The aim of this project is to develop and evaluate ultra wideband (UWB) imaging technology for the detection and classification of stroke via simulations and measurements and to propose and realize a laboratory version of the system which in a second phase of this project will be further developed for actual clinical use. The analytical analysis of the UWB signals propagating through different head layers lead to the extraction of the general necessary specifications of the imaging system based on which appropriate UWB hardware components, in particular antennas and antennas arrays, suitable for this specific medical di-agnostic purpose will be designed. Moreover, a realistic model of human head without and with stroke (both hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke) will be set up and investigated through numerical computer simulations. Based on the specific characteristics of the human head model, robust, fast and sensitive reconstruction algorithms for imaging, recognition and classification of stroke will be developed and applied. A measurement setup consisting of an optimized antenna array will be practically realized and its performance will be evaluated on phantoms that mimic the human head.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants