Medical microwave radiometry and its clinical applications

In clinical medicine, microwave radiometry is used to obtain information about internal body temperature patterns by the measurement of part of the centimetric wavelength component of of the natural thermal radiation from the tissues of the body. In appropriate circumstances, knowledge of such thermal patterns can assist clinical disease detection and diagnosis, and may have a role in the monitoring of therapeutic processes. The technique has important practical advantages for clinical medical applications through being noninvasive and inherently completely safe. The author discusses the development, principal applications and future development of the technique.