Human pericardial fluid at microwave frequencies

This article reports a new method of analyzing pericardial fluid based on the measurement of the dielectric properties at microwave frequencies. The microwave measurements were performed by rectangular cavity perturbation method in the S‐band of microwave frequency with the pericardial fluid from healthy persons as well as from patients suffering from pericardial effusion. It is observed that a remarkable change in the dielectric properties of patient samples with the normal healthy samples and these measurements were in good agreement with clinical analysis. This measurement technique and the method of extraction of pericardial fluid are simple. These results give light to an alternative in‐vitro method of diagnosing onset pericardial effusion abnormalities using microwaves without surgical procedure. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 155–158, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24010