No abstract

The objective of this study was to compare three different heat transfer models for radiofrequency ablation of in vivo liver tissue using a cooled electrode and three different voltage levels. The comparison was between the simplest but less realistic Pennes’ equation and two porous media-based models, i.e. the Local Thermal Non-Equilibrium (LTNE) equations and Local Thermal Equilibrium (LTE) equation, both modified to take into account two-phase water vaporization (tissue and blood). Different blood volume fractions in liver were considered and the blood velocity was modeled to simulate a vascular network. Governing equations with the appropriate boundary conditions were solved with Comsol Multiphysics finite-element code. The results in terms of coagulation transverse diameters and temperature distributions at the end of the application showed significant differences, especially between Pennes and the modified LTNE and LTE models. The new modified porous media-based models covered the ranges found in the few in vivo experimental studies in the literature and they were closer to the published results with similar in vivo protocol. The outcomes highlight the importance of considering the three models in the future in order to improve thermal ablation protocols and devices and adapt the model to different organs and patient profiles.

No abstract

In this paper, the effect of coupled thermal dilation and stress on interstitial fluid transport in tumour tissues is evaluated. The tumour is modelled as a spherical deformable poroelastic medium embedded with interstitial fluid, while the transvascular fluid flow is modelled as a uniform distribution of fluid sink and source points. A hyperbolic-decay radial function is used to model the heat source generation along with a rapid decay of tumour blood flow. Governing equations for displacement, fluid flow and temperature are first scaled and then solved with a finite-element scheme. Results are compared with analytical solutions from the literature, while results are presented for different scaling parameters to analyse the various physical phenomena. Results show that temperature affects pressure and velocity fields through the deformable medium. Finally, simulations are performed by assuming that the heat source is periodic, in order to assess the extent to which this condition affects the velocity field. It is reported that in some cases, especially for periodic heating, the combination of thermoelastic and poroelastic deformation led to no monotonic pressure distribution, which can be interesting for applications such as macromolecule drug delivery, in which the advective contribution is very important owing to the low diffusivity.

No abstract