ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a newly developed microwave Computed Tomography that is particularly suitable for non-invasive thermometry of the human body. Active imaging of the human body using microwaves relies on measuring the permittivity distribution inside the body. Since the complex permittivity is temperature dependent in the frequency range of the tomographic measurement, microwave tomograph can also be used for temperature imaging; this is the principle of temperature imaging using microwaves. The chapter discusses the complex permittivities of human tissues and aims to characterize the frequency dependence of the tissue permittivities. In excised tissues, drastic changes in the tissue environment such as the interruption of blood flow cause the permittivity to change markedly. Microwave tomography utilizes the temperature dependence of the complex permittivity of tissue to visualize temperature change. Phantom models of the human body are saline solutions of a certain salt concentration that are often used as targets in microwave tomographic measurements.
