Events Calendar

Medical Imaging Seminar

Speaker: Christian Pichot, Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, LEAT, SophiaTech Campus

Talk Title: Microwave Tomographic Imaging of Brain Strokes

Series: Medical Imaging Seminar Series

Abstract: Brain strokes are one of the leading causes of disability and mortality in adults in developed countries. Ischemic stroke (85% of total cases) and hemorrhagic stroke (15%) must be treated with opposing therapies, and thus, the nature of the stroke must be determined quickly in order to apply the appropriate treatment. Recent studies in biomedical imaging have shown that strokes produce variations in the complex electric permittivity of brain tissues, which can be detected by means of microwave tomography. Here, we present some synthetic results obtained with an experimental microwave tomography-based portable system for demonstrating the feasibility of such a new imaging modality for the early detection and monitoring of brain strokes. The determination of electric permittivity requires the solution of a coupled forward-inverse problem. Iterative microwave tomographic imaging requires the solution of an inverse problem based on a minimization algorithm (e.g. gradient based) with successive solutions of a direct problem such as the accurate modeling of a whole-microwave measurement system. Synthetic data are obtained with electromagnetic simulations, which have been derived from measurements of an experimental microwave imaging system developed by EMTensor GmbH (Vienna, Austria). Results demonstrate the possibility to detect brain strokes, as well as for monitoring during the treatment, with a microwave system with reasonable running times for image reconstructions when applying the proposed reconstruction algorithm using state-of-the-art numerical modeling and massively parallel computing.

Biography: Christian Pichot is currently a Researcher Emeritus at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), at the Electronics, Antennas & Telecommunications Laboratory (LEAT), a joint Université Côte d'Azur and CNRS laboratory, 06900 Sophia Antipolis, France.He received the Ph.D. and the Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) degrees from the University of Paris-Sud 11 in 1977 and 1982, respectively.

From 2000 to 2011, he was the Director of the LEAT. From 2008 to 2013, he was the co-founder and co-director of CREMANT, a joint Antenna Research Center, supported by the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, CNRS and France Telecom Orange Labs. He received in 1983 the European Microwave Prize. He is an IEEE Fellow for "Contributions to Microwave Imaging and Antenna Design". He received the Medal of Honor of CNRS in 2018, and the Academy of Sciences URSI-France Medal in 2019.

His research activities are concerned with scattering and propagation of Electromagnetic Waves,radiation of antennas, inverse scattering (Microwave Imaging and Tomography, AntennaSynthesis, Complex Permittivity Reconstruction, Object Detection and Recognition) for applications in Radar, Civil engineering, non-destructive evaluation (NDE), non-destructive testing (NDT), geophysics engineering, security and military applications, antennas, telecommunications, and medical domain (biomedical engineering), VLF/LF frequencies, microwaves and millimetre waves.


Host: Krishna Nayak, knayak@usc.edu

Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Talyia White