Passive microwave radiometry (MWR) is a measurement technique based on the detection of passive radiation in the microwave spectrum from different objects. This radiation in equilibrium is known to be proportional to the thermodynamic temperature of an emitting body. We hypothesize that living systems feature other mechanisms of emission that are based on protein unfolding and water rotational transitions. To understand the nature of these emissions, microwave radiometry has been used in several in vitro experiments. In our study, we performed pilot measurements of microwave emissions from egg whites during denaturation induced by ethanol. Egg whites are 10% proteins such as albumins, mucoproteins, and globulins. We found a novel phenomenon that microwave emissions changed without a corresponding change of the water thermodynamic temperature. increase 100 times faster than thermodynamic temperature. We have also found striking differences between microwave emission and thermodynamic temperature kinetics. Therefore, we hypothesize that these two processes are unrelated, contrary to what was thought before. It is known that some pathologies like stroke or brain trauma feature increased microwave emissions. We hypothesize that this phenomenon originates from protein denaturation and is not related to the thermodynamic temperature. So, our finding could explain first time the reason for microwave emissions increase after trauma and postmortem. It could be used for the development of novel diagnostics methods. The MWR method is inexpensive, and it does not require fluorescent or radioactive labels. It can be used in different areas of basic and applied pharmaceutical research, including kinetics studies in biomedicine.
Background. Chest CT is widely regarded as a dependable imaging technique for detecting pneumonia in COVID-19 patients, but there is growing interest in microwave radiometry (MWR) of the lungs as a possible substitute for diagnosing lung involvement. Aim. The aim of this study is to examine the utility of the MWR approach as a screening tool for diagnosing pneumonia with complications in patients with COVID-19. Methods. Our study involved two groups of participants. The control group consisted of 50 individuals (24 male and 26 female) between the ages of 20 and 70 years who underwent clinical evaluations and had no known medical conditions. The main group included 142 participants (67 men and 75 women) between the ages of 20 and 87 years who were diagnosed with COVID-19 complicated by pneumonia and were admitted to the emergency department between June 2020 to June 2021. Skin and lung temperatures were measured at 14 points, including 2 additional reference points, using a previously established method. Lung temperature data were obtained with the MWR2020 (MMWR LTD, Edinburgh, UK). All participants underwent clinical evaluations, laboratory tests, chest CT scans, MWR of the lungs, and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing for SARS-CoV-2. Results. The MWR exhibits a high predictive capacity as demonstrated by its sensitivity of 97.6% and specificity of 92.7%. Conclusions. MWR of the lungs can be a valuable substitute for chest CT in diagnosing pneumonia in patients with COVID-19, especially in situations where chest CT is unavailable or impractical.
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