Osteoporosis is a bone disease that occurs when the body loses too much bone or makes too little bone. As a result, bones become weak and may break from a fall. Osteoporosis poses a serious health risk to our aging population with the international osteoporosis foundation (IOF) estimating that worldwide 1 in 5 men and 1 in 3 women over the age of 50 will experience an osteoporotic fracture at some point. Currently a form of X-ray called dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry is used to diagnose osteoporosis, but new techniques are being developed which use low levels of microwaves to diagnose osteoporosis. These techniques would be portable, cheaper to use and safer for patients than x-rays as they don’t expose the patients to ionising radiation. My project involves development of healthy and osteoporotic bone models that accurately simulate the dielectric properties of healthy and osteoporotic bone . These models would be used in the development and testing of microwave imaging devices.
