Developing realistic 3D numerical conductivity and permittivity phantom of the human forearm from 10 Hz to 0.1 THz

Understanding the conductivity and permittivity properties of the human forearm has the potential of developing classifiers to differentiate healthy bones from abnormal bones suffering from osteoporosis or osteopaenia. The aim of the paper is to present the segmentation of three T1 weighted MRI scans of the human forearm for computational modelling of the conductivity and permittivity properties from 10 Hz to 0.1 THz. The 2D MRI scans are segmented into 18 different regions according to anatomical composition. A linear interpolation was applied to the 2D MRI images to produce a 3D image. Cole-Cole equation was used to model the conductivity and permittivity from 10 Hz to 0.1 THz. The result of the Cole-Cole equation was applied to the 3D segmented images to produce a 3D computational conductivity phantom and a 3D computational permittivity phantom of the human forearm. Through this successful study of the electromagnetic properties of the normal healthy human forearm, there is the potential for the expansion of the technique to enable early detection of unhealthy bone and thus consider prompt treatment of the patients with this condition.