Microwave imaging for liver thermal ablation monitoring. Developing an experimental set-up

Thermal ablation has been recognized as an effective method for liver malignancy treatment. The clinical difficulties lie in monitoring the treatment process in realtime. In recent years, microwave imaging has been proposed as a modality with out-standing features such as non-ionizing nature, cost-effective, and capable of realtime monitoring. In this respect, in this contribution, a low-complexity experimental set-up for the experimental assessment of microwave imaging system for liver ablation monitoring is proposed and numerically assessed. The reconstruction of images inside the liver shows that it is possible to localize the ablation zone in the abdomen phantom during the thermal ablation treatment. The results of this study lay the foundations for the experimental assessment of microwave imaging systems for thermal ablation monitoring.