Uso dos métodos de impedância eletromecânica e térmica para a detecção de inclusões visando a aplicação em tumores mamários

Abstract

Breast cancer is a public health problem and has the highest incidence and mortality in the female population worldwide. Early detection of breast cancer is essential for reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with this disease. Some of the methods used to detect breast tumors are ultrasonography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), tomosynthesis and mammography, which is recommended as a screening technique. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, such as discomfort to the patient during the exams, possible reactions to the contrast agent, radiation emission, operator dependence for the analysis of results, difficulty for detection in dense tissues, lack of accessibility for people with disabilities or low mobility, high cost and radioactive waste production. The main objective of this work is to apply the electromechanical and thermal impedance methods in the detection of inclusions, in order to be used, in the future, as alternative techniques to those already existent for the identification of breast tumors. The application of the electromechanical impedance method using piezoelectric transducers, acting simultaneously as a sensor and actuator, coupled to the analyzed structure allows the monitoring of mass, rigidity and/or damping variations, and consequent detection of the inclusion. The same procedure is applied in the thermal impedance method, which consists of the ratio between the gradient of the surface temperature response of the structure as a function of the application of an external heat flow. The detection of inclusions is possible due to the damage metrics that are statistical parameters capable of numerically representing the difference between two measurements before and after the damage. The proposed methodology is validated experimentally through the application in hyperplastic materials of simple and complex geometry. Silicone samples and medical application models are analyzed. The proposed impedance methods preliminarily presented a higher sensitivity of the technique to smaller inclusions of 10 mm in diameter for the tests performed. In addition, it was observed that the external heating imposed on the models and the presence of heat generation in the inclusions aided in the detection. A qualitative test was performed in vivo to analyze the potential of the use of electromechanical impedance in clinical applications. This work presents important contributions not only in the field of biomechanical engineering, but also in the analysis of structural behavior, expanding the applications of damage techniques in hyperelastic materials, as well as proposing the use of thermal impedance as a new parameter for identification of inclusions or structural failures in nondestructive testing.