TY - JOUR

T1 - A novel coplanar probe design for fast scanning of edema in human brain tissue via dielectric measurements

AU - Reinecke, T.

AU - Hagemeier, L.

AU - Ahrens, S.

AU - Doroschenko, Y.

AU - Klintschar, M.

AU - Zimmermann, S.

N1 - Funding information: Stefan Zimmermann received his Diploma in Electrical Engineering in 1996 and his Dr.-Ing. in 2001 from the Technical University Hamburg-Harburg, Germany. In2001, he joined the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, University of California, USA as a postdoctoral scientist with support of a Feodor-Lynen Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. In 2004, he joined the Research Unit of Dräger, Germany, where he worked on sensors for medical and safety applications. His latest position was head of Chemical and Biochemical Sensors. In 2009, he joined the Leibniz University Hannover, Germany as a full professor in sensors and measurement technology.

PY - 2015/6/9

Y1 - 2015/6/9

N2 - As part of every standard forensic autopsy, the examination of the brain includes assessment with respect to possible edema. The quantification of edema is helpful to make a sound diagnosis in presence of multiple affections and multiple possible causes of death. The water content in certain brain regions is furthermore a promising marker to distinguish between causes of death with no visible evidence, such as suffocation, shaking impact syndrome and sudden infant death syndrome. However, in todays' forensic medicine, no technique is available for the objective and exact quantification of edema. Therefore, the aim of this work is to develop a fast and easy-to-use measuring system for the accurate determination of the water content in human brain tissue that fits into the procedure of a routine autopsy. For our setups, the dependency between relative permittivity and water content is utilized. In former works, we presented measurements of human brain tissue using a coaxial measuring chamber and an open-ended coaxial probe. However, some drawbacks of the used methods emerged. Thus, a novel probe design using a coplanar transmission line has been developed, addressing the drawbacks of the formerly used methods. This new probe is easy to calibrate and allows fast and accurate sequential scanning for edema in human brain tissue.

AB - As part of every standard forensic autopsy, the examination of the brain includes assessment with respect to possible edema. The quantification of edema is helpful to make a sound diagnosis in presence of multiple affections and multiple possible causes of death. The water content in certain brain regions is furthermore a promising marker to distinguish between causes of death with no visible evidence, such as suffocation, shaking impact syndrome and sudden infant death syndrome. However, in todays' forensic medicine, no technique is available for the objective and exact quantification of edema. Therefore, the aim of this work is to develop a fast and easy-to-use measuring system for the accurate determination of the water content in human brain tissue that fits into the procedure of a routine autopsy. For our setups, the dependency between relative permittivity and water content is utilized. In former works, we presented measurements of human brain tissue using a coaxial measuring chamber and an open-ended coaxial probe. However, some drawbacks of the used methods emerged. Thus, a novel probe design using a coplanar transmission line has been developed, addressing the drawbacks of the formerly used methods. This new probe is easy to calibrate and allows fast and accurate sequential scanning for edema in human brain tissue.

KW - Coplanar line

KW - Coplanar probe

KW - Dielectric spectroscopy

KW - Material characterization

KW - Permittivity measurement

KW - Permittivity of brain tissue

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84934974188&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.snb.2015.06.002

DO - 10.1016/j.snb.2015.06.002

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84934974188

VL - 220

SP - 522

EP - 527

JO - Sensors and Actuators, B: Chemical

JF - Sensors and Actuators, B: Chemical

SN - 0925-4005

ER -