UNIT I

NON-IONIZING RADIATION AND ITS MEDICAL APPLICATIONS

• UNIT I NON-IONIZING RADIATION AND ITS
MEDICAL APPLICATIONS
• Introduction and objectives - Tissue as a leaky
dielectric - Relaxation processes, Debye model,
• Cole–Cole model, Overview of non-ionizing
radiation effects-Low Frequency Effects- Higher
frequency effects.
• Physics of light, Measurement of light and its
unit- limits of vision and color vision an
overview, Ultraviolet
• If electromagnetic radiation is incident on the human body then
it will be absorbed in discrete amounts or quanta.
• This amount may be sufficient for ionization of atoms to occur.
The equation E = hν, where h is Planck’s constant (6.624 ×
10−34 J s), gives the relationship between the energy E of the
radiation and the frequency ν.
• Quantized radiation absorption is an important concept where
we are dealing with ionizing radiation, but it becomes less
important where lower-energy radiations are concerned.
• Table below lists some of the major components of the
electromagnetic spectrum and the associated energies and
frequencies.
• An energy of about 10 eV is required for ionization of an atom
to occur.
• Most of the electromagnetic radiations to which we are
exposed are of lower energy than the 0.03 eV thermal
energy level.
• Most of these radiations are most likely to be absorbed
in tissue as heat.
• There is a very large difference between the total
amount of heat involved in the absorption of ionizing
and non-ionizing radiations.
• For example, the sun exposes us to an energy field of
approximately 103 J s−1 m−2 and can raise our body
temperature by several degrees, whereas the temperature
rise resulting from a lethal exposure to gamma radiation
will be only about one-hundredth of a degree centigrade.
• It might seem that the electromagnetic radiations given in
table 8.3 are most unlikely to cause significant biological
interactions.
• However, it is possible that absorption by many photons
might raise energy levels sufficiently to disrupt molecular
structures.
• The whole area of hazards from electromagnetic fields is a
controversial one, and one that is very poorly understood.
• The three most important interactions between
electromagnetic fields and tissue are electrolysis, neural
stimulation and heating.
• There are other interactions such as the proton and molecular
resonances which occur in a DC magnetic field but these are
not thought to cause any significant biological effects.
• Tissues though contain both free and bound charges, and thus exhibit
simultaneously the properties of a conductor and a dielectric.
• If we consider tissue as a conductor, we have to include a term in the
conductivity to account for the redistribution of bound charges in
the dielectric.
• Conversely, if we consider the tissue as a dielectric, we have to
include a term in the permittivity to account for the movement of
free charges. The two approaches must, of course, lead to identical
results.
• A primary requirement of these dielectrics is that their
conductivity is very low (<10−10 S m−1).
• Metals and alloys, in which the conduction is by free
electrons, have high conductivities (>104 S m−1).
• Intermediate between metals and insulators are
semiconductors (conduction by excitation of holes and
electrons) with conductivities in the range 100–10−4 S
m−1, and electrolytes (conduction by ions in solution)
with conductivities of the order of 100–102 S m−1.
• Tissue can be considered as a collection of electrolytes
contained within membranes of assorted dimensions.
None of the constituents of tissue can be considered to
have ‘pure’ resistance or capacitance—the two properties
are inseparable.
• We start by considering slabs of an ideal conductor and an
ideal insulator, each with surface area A and thickness x
• If the dielectric has relative permittivity εr then the slab
has a capacitance C = ε0εrA/x. The conductance of the
slab is G = σA/x, where the conductivity is σ.
• The equations C = ε0εrA/x and G = σA/x define the static
capacitance and conductance of the dielectric, i.e. the
capacitance and conductance at zero frequency.
• If we apply an alternating voltage to our real dielectric, the
current will lead the voltage.
• The equations C = ε0εrA/x and G = σA/x define the static
capacitance and conductance of the dielectric, i.e. the
capacitance and conductance at zero frequency.
• If we apply an alternating voltage to our real dielectric, the
current will lead the voltage.
• Clearly, if G = 0, the phase angle θ = π/2, i.e. the current leads the
voltage by π/2, as we would expect for a pure capacitance. If C =
0, current and voltage are in phase, as expected for a pure
resistance.
• For our real dielectric, the admittance is given by Y ∗ = G + jωC,
where the ∗ convention has been used to denote a complex
variable (this usage is conventional in dielectric theory).
• We can, as a matter of convenience, define a generalized
permittivity ε∗ = ε − jε which includes the effect of both the
resistive and capacitive elements in our real dielectric.
• We can relate the generalized permittivity to the model of the real
dielectric by considering the admittance,
By analogy with an ideal capacitance C which has admittance jωC,
we can define the complex capacitance C∗ of the real dielectric,
RELAXATION PROCESSES
• If there is a redistribution of charges within the dielectric as a result
of applying the electric field, the response to a step function of the
electric field will be a function of time, and the equations for the
capacitance C and conductance G will only be true in the limit as
time goes to infinity.
• In other words, ε and σ are a function of frequency, and have a
characteristic time constant which is called a relaxation time.
Debye model
• When a capacitor is charged, the applied electric field E either
creates or orientates electrical dipoles within the material. This
process is called polarization.
• By making the assumption that the process of polarization has an
exponential approach to its final value it can be shown that the real
and imaginary parts of the complex permittivity will be given by
The real (top) and imaginary
(bottom) parts of the complex
permittivity given by the Debye
equations.
The same results would be obtained for an equivalent circuit as shown in figure
Cole–Cole model
• The two figures given in figure show the real and imaginary parts
of a relaxation process.
• The full curves with the steeper gradients are the prediction from
the Debye model.
• The less steep curves show a typical measurement from actual
tissue.
• The agreement between theoretical and measured values is not very
good.
• Cole and Cole (1941) proposed an alternative formula, which was
similar to the Debye equations but had an addition term called
alpha.
• Cole and Cole introduced an empirical modification to match the
models to the data.
• Their model is widely used.
The real (top) and imaginary (bottom) parts of the
Cole and Debye models for a relaxation
process. The less steep curves are for the Cole
model and agree well with many measurements
made on biological tissues.
Cole proposed that the real distribution could be modelled by

It can be shown that the real and imaginary components of the

complex permittivity are given by the following equations, which
reduce to the values derived for the Debye model when α = 0:
• The Cole–Cole model is a model of the measured data.
• It has been applied very successfully to a wide variety of materials
and interactions over the past 60 years, but it does not give any
information about the underlying causes of the phenomena being
measured.
• A number of workers use a form of the Cole equation written in
terms of impedance instead of a complex permittivity.
• The impedance Z is given by
• The impedance Z is given by