Eur. Phys. J. AP 19, 2527 (2002) DOI: 10.

1051/epjap:2002045

THE EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL

APPLIED PHYSICS

Modeling microwave electromagnetic eld absorption in muscle tissues

D. Felbacq1 , a , S. Clerjon2 , J.L. Damez2 , and F. Zolla3
1 2 3

LASMEAb , Complexe des C ezeaux, 63177 Aubi` ere Cedex, France INRA, SRV equipe biophysique, 63122 St-Gen` es-Champanelle, France Institut Fresnelc , 13397 Marseille Cedex 20, France

Received: 31 August 2001 / Accepted: 12 April 2002 Published online: 28 June 2002 c EDP Sciences

Abstract. Absorption of electromagnetic energy in human tissues is an important issue with respect to the safety of low-level exposure. Simulation is a way to a better understanding of electromagnetic dosimetry. This letter presents a comparison between results obtained from a numerical simulation and experimental data of absorbed energy by a muscle. Simulation was done using a bidimensional double-scale homogenization scheme leading to the eective permittivity tensor. Experimental measurements were performed at 10 GHz on bovine muscle, 30 hours after slaughter, thanks to the open-ended rectangular waveguide method. Results show a good agreement between measurements and simulated data. PACS. 87.50.-a Eects of radiation and external elds on biomolecules, cells and higher organisms 87.50.Jk Radio frequency and microwave radiation (power lines) 42.25.Fx Diraction and scattering 02.60.Cb Numerical simulation; solution of equations

Microwaves are strongly absorbed in water, which represents the most important constituent of biological system (almost 75%). This poses the problem of the absorption of electromagnetic energy in human tissues. Considerable interest has been shown in the biological eects of electromagnetic elds, with respect to the safety of low-level exposure (in conjunction with the use of cellular phones and domestic or industrial microwave ovens) [1], and to medical applications of exposure (hyperthermia as an adjunct to common anticancer treatments) [2]. The objective of the studies undertaken here is a better understanding of electromagnetic dosimetry. Dosimetry problems involve the simulation of exposure situations and the calculation of internal elds within the body. Body tissues are comprised of both anisotropic and multiple levels of structure (macroscopic structure, biological cell, molecules). However, the wavelengths at issue in microwave studies are much greater than the molecules and cell structures. Consequently, it seems reasonable to describe the electromagnetic behavior of body tissues by deriving a renormalized eective permittivity taking into account two scales of the medium. Due to the bered constitution of the muscles we have limited our study to a
a b c

e-mail: felbacq@lasmea.univ-bpclermont.fr UMR-CNRS 6602 UMR-CNRS 6133

bidimensional model: we use a bidimensional double-scale homogenization scheme to obtain the permittivity tensor of the tissue. For such 2D models, a standard decomposition leads to study separately the s-polarized eld (electric eld parallel to the direction of invariance) and the p-polarized eld (magnetic eld parallel to the direction of invariance). Our approach of homogenization relies on a limit analysis when the size of the scatterers tends to zero for a xed wavelength of the incident eld [3]. Contrarily to the quasistatic approach [4,5], where the frequency tends to zero, this method allows to proceed to the homogenization of frequency-dependent materials, a crucial point for our study. We recall very briey the main results for the homogenization of 2D structures. We consider a set of N scatterers periodically settled in a domain of space. We denote by Y the basic unit cell, so that is lled up with contracted cells Y . The permittivity is dened in cell Y by a function such that the scatterer S has a relative permittivity s and is embedded in a homogeneous material lling up of relative permittivity (see Fig. 1). The relative permittivity is then = x in and 1 outside . We denote generically by U the electric or magnetic eld, according to the polarization. When the structure is illuminated by a monochromatic incident eld U i it gives rise to a eld UN satisfying the following system, according to the polarization

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The European Physical Journal Applied Physics

Fig. 1. Scheme of the structure for homogenization.

2 E|| : UN + k0 UN = 0 1 2 H|| : div U + k0 UN = 0 i UN U satises a radiation condition.

(1)

When the number of scatterers tends to innity, and accordingly their radius tends to zero, then UN tends to U satisfying
2 E E|| : U + k0 hom U = 0 1 H 2 H|| : div hom U + k0 UN = 0 i U U satises a radiation condition

(2)

where the homogenized permittivities E,H hom are dened according to the polarization by 1 in R2 \ , + (s ) in 1 1 1 1 + + s
1

E|| : E hom = H|| : H hom =

(3) in R2 \ (4) in

S| where is the lling ratio inside cell Y , that is = ||Y |, w and = Y y d y d y , w being the unique Y -periodic 1 2 1 solution of the following problem

div 1 y (w + y1 ) = 0 in Y Y w (y1 , y2 ) dy1 dy2 = 0.

(5)

The E|| case is of course very easy to handle as the homogenized permittivity is just the mean permittivity in

cell Y . On the contrary, the H|| case requires more attention for a precise resolution of problem (5). It must be noted that the permittivities that we will be dealing with in the following have an important imaginary part, so the common technique of plane wave expansion [4] does not work here. We have developed a completely new numerical method based on the ctitious sources method [6] to solve precisely this problem, a detailed exposition of this method is beyond the scope of this communication and has been published elsewhere [7]. In our particular problem, we have a structure exhibiting two scales: the microscopic scale of the proteinic complex, and the mesoscopic scale of the muscular bers. As the wavelength used in our study is very large with respect to both scales, we replace the very complex biological structure by a homogeneous material by applying twice the homogenization scheme exposed above. More precisely, a muscular ber being made of a collection of micro-bers, and hence being heterogeneous, it is replaced by a homogeneous ber whose permittivity 1 hom is computed using (3-4). Then the collection of muscular bers, which are now homogenized, is replaced by a homogeneous medium deduced also from (3-4) where s is replaced by 1 hom , from which we obtain the nal homogenized permittivity 2 hom . Of course there are two dierent permittivities according to the polarization: this is precisely the goal of our work, that is, to show that the anisotropy of the original structure can be recovered by homogenization techniques. Energy absorption in muscle was measured at the end of a rectangular open-ended waveguide. This kind of probe is often used to obtain dielectric properties of materials [8]. The complex reection coecient at the interface rectangular probe-sample was measured with an automatic network analyzer (HP8510). In order to cover the wide band from 8 to 16 GHz, both an X -band (inside dimensions: 22.9 10.2 mm and a ground plane of 41 41 mm) and a P -band (inside dimensions: 15.8 7.9 mm and a ground plane of 33 33 mm) probe were used. The experimental measurements used two samples of Semitendinosus muscle. Measurements were made on muscles at 30 hours postmortem. The muscle was bisected along a central plane parallel to the ber orientation. The cut surfaces were used as the reection planes and the rectangular probes were applied to these surfaces. Care was taken to ensure that sample temperature (4 C) did not vary during acquisition. The probes were applied, one after the other, to each sample in s-polarized eld position (electric eld parallel to the muscle bers direction) and in p-polarized eld position (magnetic eld parallel to the muscle bers direction). Figure 2 gives the anisotropic ratio, i.e. the ratio energy reected in s-polarized position on energy reected in p-polarized position, which is the dielectric anisotropy of muscle. Results show a good agreement between measurements and simulated data although the numerical model is still rather far from real muscle. Another important point is that measurements were performed on cold muscle at 4 C, and cold bovine meat is of course dierent from living

D. Felbacq et al.: Modeling microwave electromagnetic eld absorption in muscle tissues

0,965 0,96 0,955 0,95 E// / H// 0,945 0,94 0,935 simulation 0,93 0,925 0,92 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Frequency (GHz) experience

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Fig. 2. Anisotropic ratio of reected energy between s-polarisation and p-polarisation.

human muscle, but this is a rst approach to a realistic model of this tissue.

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4. P. Halevi, A.A. Krokhin, J. Arriaga, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 719 (2001) 5. K. Bao, R.C. McPhedran, L.C. Botten, Physica B 279, 162 (2000) 6. F. Zolla, R. Petit, M. Cadilhac, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 11, 1087 (1994) 7. D. Felbacq, E. Centeno, F. Zolla, Electromagnetic Optics of Finite-size Photonic Crystals: Homogenization, Resonances, Non-linearity and Propagation in Recent Research Developments in Optics, Research SignPost Ed., 2001 8. S. Bakhtiari, S.I. Ganchev, R. Zoughi, IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas. 42, 19 (1993)

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