Objective: The incidence of pulmonary nodules has been increasing over the past 30 years. Different types of nodules are associated with varying degrees of malignancy, and they engender inconsistent treatment approaches. Therefore, correct distinction is essential for the optimal treatment and recovery of the patients. The commonly-used medical imaging methods have limitations in distinguishing lung nodules to date. A new approach to this problem may be provided by electrical properties of lung nodules. Nevertheless, difference identification is the basis of correct distinction. So, this paper aims to investigate the differences in electrical properties between various lung nodules.
Methods: At variance with existing studies, benign samples were included for analysis. A total of 252 specimens were collected, including 126 normal tissues, 15 benign nodules, 76 adenocarcinomas, and 35 squamous cell carcinomas. The dispersion properties of each tissue were measured over a frequency range of 100 Hz to 100 MHz. And the relaxation mechanism was analyzed by fitting the Cole-Cole plot. The corresponding equivalent circuit was estimated accordingly.
Results: Results validated the significant differences between malignant and normal tissue. Significant differences between benign and malignant lesions were observed in conductivity and relative permittivity. Adenocarcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas are significantly different in conductivity, first-order, second-order differences of conductivity, α-band Cole-Cole plot parameters and capacitance of equivalent circuit. The combination of the different features increased the tissue groups' differences measured by Euclidean distance up to 94.7%.
Conclusion and significance: In conclusion, the four tissue groups reveal dissimilarity in electrical properties. This characteristic potentially lends itself to future diagnosis of non-invasive lung cancer.