The objective of this study was to develop anatomically correct whole body human models of an adult male (34 years old), an adult female (26 years old) and two children (an 11-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy) for the optimized evaluation of electromagnetic exposure. These four models are referred to as the Virtual Family. They are based on high resolution magnetic resonance (MR) images of healthy volunteers. More than 80 different tissue types were distinguished during the segmentation. To improve the accuracy and the effectiveness of the segmentation, a novel semi-automated tool was used to analyze and segment the data. All tissues and organs were reconstructed as three-dimensional (3D) unstructured triangulated surface objects, yielding high precision images of individual features of the body. This greatly enhances the meshing flexibility and the accuracy with respect to thin tissue layers and small organs in comparison with the traditional voxel-based representation of anatomical models. Conformal computational techniques were also applied. The techniques and tools developed in this study can be used to more effectively develop future models and further improve the accuracy of the models for various applications. For research purposes, the four models are provided for free to the scientific community.

/pdf/the-virtual-family-development-of-surface-based-anatomical-47u5t3e6am.pdf

The Virtual Family—development of surface-based anatomical models of two adults and two children for dosimetric simulations

This paper analyzes the radio frequencies (RF) exposure in the head tissues of children using a cellular handset or RF sources (a dipole and a generic handset) at 900, 1800, 2100 and 2400 MHz. Based on magnetic resonance imaging, child head models have been developed. The maximum specific absorption rate (SAR) over 10 g in the head has been analyzed in seven child and six adult heterogeneous head models. The influence of the variability in the same age class is carried out using models based on a morphing technique. The SAR over 1 g in specific tissues has also been assessed in the different types of child and adult head models. Comparisons are performed but nevertheless need to be confirmed since they have been derived from data sets of limited size. The simulations that have been performed show that the differences between the maximum SAR over 10 g estimated in the head models of the adults and the ones of the children are small compared to the standard deviations. But they indicate that the maximum SAR in 1 g of peripheral brain tissues of the child models aged between 5 and 8 years is about two times higher than in adult models. This difference is not observed for the child models of children above 8 years old: the maximum SAR in 1 g of peripheral brain tissues is about the same as the one in adult models. Such differences can be explained by the lower thicknesses of pinna, skin and skull of the younger child models.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0031-9155/53/13/019/pdf

Analysis of RF exposure in the head tissues of children and adults

The peak spatial specific absorption rate (SAR) assessed with the standardized specific anthropometric mannequin head phantom has been shown to yield a conservative exposure estimate for both adults and children using mobile phones. There are, however, questions remaining concerning the impact of age-dependent dielectric tissue properties and age-dependent proportions of the skull, face and ear on the global and local absorption, in particular in the brain tissues. In this study, we compare the absorption in various parts of the cortex for different magnetic resonance imaging-based head phantoms of adults and children exposed to different models of mobile phones. The results show that the locally induced fields in children can be significantly higher (>3 dB) in subregions of the brain (cortex, hippocampus and hypothalamus) and the eye due to the closer proximity of the phone to these tissues. The increase is even larger for bone marrow (>10 dB) as a result of its significantly high conductivity. Tissues such as the pineal gland show no increase since their distances to the phone are not a function of age. This study, however, confirms previous findings saying that there are no age-dependent changes of the peak spatial SAR when averaged over the entire head.

/pdf/age-dependent-tissue-specific-exposure-of-cell-phone-users-4wsv5f7il2.pdf

Age-dependent tissue-specific exposure of cell phone users

Numerical modelling of the interaction between electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and the dielectrically inhomogeneous human body provides a unique way of assessing the resulting spatial distributions of internal electric fields, currents and rate of energy deposition Knowledge of these parameters is of importance in understanding such interactions and is a prerequisite when assessing EMF exposure or when assessing or optimizing therapeutic or diagnostic medical applications that employ EMFs In this review, computational methods that provide this information through full time-dependent solutions of Maxwell's equations are summarized briefly This is followed by an overview of safety- and medical-related applications where modelling has contributed significantly to development and understanding of the techniques involved In particular, applications in the areas of mobile communications, magnetic resonance imaging, hyperthermal therapy and microwave radiometry are highlighted Finally, examples of modelling the potentially new medical applications of recent technologies such as ultra-wideband microwaves are discussed

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0031-9155/53/16/R01/pdf

Modelling the interaction of electromagnetic fields (10 MHz–10 GHz) with the human body: methods and applications

On-body area ultrawideband (UWB) communication is of high importance for promising new biomedical applications. However, there are currently few measurements or models describing on-body area propagation channels which put an emphasis on various body postures. Using the frequency-dependent finite-difference time domain (FDTD) method and a realistic human body model, we simulate various body postures for modeling on-body channels. Based on the FDTD numerical results, we derive an on-body propagation model and determine the model parameters for some representative transmission links on the human body. A good match is obtained between the data derived from FDTD and the statistically implemented models in terms of key communication metrics. In addition, for the chest-to-right-waist transmission link, an experiment is performed in order to verify the results from the FDTD method, and it is found that the model parameters agree well between the two approaches.

An On-Body Channel Model for UWB Body Area Communications for Various Postures

The specific absorption rates (SAR) determined computationally in the specific anthropomorphic mannequin (SAM) and anatomically correct models of the human head when exposed to a mobile phone model are compared as part of a study organized by IEEE Standards Coordinating Committee 34, Sub-Committee 2, and Working Group 2, and carried out by an international task force comprising 14 government, academic, and industrial research institutions. The detailed study protocol defined the computational head and mobile phone models. The participants used different finite-difference time-domain software and independently positioned the mobile phone and head models in accordance with the protocol. The results show that when the pinna SAR is calculated separately from the head SAR, SAM produced a higher SAR in the head than the anatomically correct head models. Also the larger (adult) head produced a statistically significant higher peak SAR for both the 1- and 10-g averages than did the smaller (child) head for all conditions of frequency and position.

/pdf/comparisons-of-computed-mobile-phone-induced-sar-in-the-sam-14xflxuas3.pdf

M. Siegbahn

Papers

Comparisons of computed mobile phone induced SAR in the SAM phantom to that in anatomically correct models of the human head