Microwaves Detect Malaria At Its Onset

June 17, 2009
MALARIA CLAIMS THE LIVES of an estimated one to three million people every year. No vaccine is available for this infectious disease. With early diagnosis, however, patients have a better chance of responding to drug treatments. A method of ...

MALARIA CLAIMS THE LIVES of an estimated one to three million people every year. No vaccine is available for this infectious disease. With early diagnosis, however, patients have a better chance of responding to drug treatments. A method of detecting malaria at its onset has been developed by Anil Lonappan, Vinu Thomas, Joe Jacob, and K.T. Mathew from India's Cochin University of Science and Technology with C. Rajasekaran from the Medical College in Trivandrum. The approach is based on the measurement of the dielectric properties of blood at microwave frequencies.

The researchers made measurements at S-band using a rectangular cavity perturbation technique with blood samples from both healthy donors and malaria patients. This simple, fast, and accurate technique requires small samples of blood to measure dielectric properties. Appreciable differences were found in the dielectric properties of healthy patient samples compared to infected samples in the specified frequency band. The experimental setup comprised a transmission-type S-band rectangular cavity resonator and HP 8714 ET network analyzer from Agilent Technologies.

The cavity resonator is a transmission line with one or both ends closed. The number of resonant frequencies is determined by the resonator's length. When a material is introduced into a resonant cavity, the cavity field distribution and resonant frequency are changed depending on the material's shape, electromagnetic properties, and position in the cavity fields. See "A Novel Method of Detecting Malaria Using Microwaves," Microwave And Optical Technology Letters, April 2009, p. 915.

Sponsored Recommendations

Frequency Modulation Fundamentals

March 14, 2024
The development of crystal-clear FM communications was an innovation of genius and toil. Utilized today in applications such as radar, seismology, telemetry and two-way radios...

44 GHz Programmable Signal Generator

March 14, 2024
The Mini-Circuits SSG-44G-RC is a 0.1 to 44 GHz signal source with an RF output range of -40 to +17 dBm with fine resolution. This model supports CW and pulsed (? 0.5 ?s) outputs...

Webinar: Introduction to OTA Measurement for mmWave and Sub-THz

Feb. 19, 2024
Join Jeanmarc Laurent, a leading expert from MilliBox, for an exclusive live webinar showcasing a complete Over-the-Air (OTA) testing system setup. In this immersive session, ...

Using a CMT VNA with Socket Server

Feb. 19, 2024
This application note describes use of a software application CMT Socket Server which is distributed and supported by Aphena Ltd. Please email [email protected] regarding purchase...