A study on health care monitoring of femoral shaft fracture healing by using implanted antenna for wireless in-to-out body channel communication

Abstract

This work proposes a health care monitoring method of femoral fractured bone healing as a novel application, based on the oblique incidence case and transmission of electromagnetic waves. The difference between the transmitted average power densities of normal and fractured bone cases is used to monitor the bone healing status. The study demonstrates the in-to-out body channel characteristics regarding the electromagnetic wave propagation and angle of incidence on a multi-layered human tissue in the range of frequencies from 100 MHz to 10 GHz. The monitoring method is presented by the analysis of electromagnetic wave propagation through a multilayer model and simulated by the CST Microwave studio. Fully insulated planar and meander half-wave dipole antennas are designed and used to simulate both types of bone fracture healing. Results show good monitoring of common types of fractures. Verification is carried out by experimental measurements on non-living animal tissues.