No abstract

The electromagnetic fields have a great influence on the behaviour of all the living systems. The as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA) principle imposes, in case of long exposures to low (i.e. power systems) or high frequency (i.e. microwave systems or cell phones) fields, some limitations to the radiated fields by the industrial equipment. On the other hand, some benefits can be taken from the effects of the electromagnetic fields on the living being: the hyperthermal technique is well known for the treatment of the cancer. Either we want to be protected from the fields, or we want to take benefit of the positive effects of these fields, all the effects thermal as well as genetic have to be well known. Like in any industrial application, the electromagnetic field computation allows a better knowledge of the phenomena, and an optimised design. Hence, there is a very important challenge for the techniques of computation of electromagnetic fields. The major difficulties that appear are: (1) related to the material properties -the "material" (the human body) has very unusual properties (magnetic permeability, electric permittivity, electric conductivity), these properties are not well known and depend on the activity of the person, and this material is an active material at the cell scale; (2) related to the coupling phenomena -the problem is actually a coupled problem: the thermal effect is one of the major effects and it is affected by the blood circulation; (3) related to the geometry -the geometry is complex and one has to take into account the environment. The problems that we have to face with are -the identification of the properties of the "material", the coupled problem solution and the representation of the simulated phenomena.

This article describes an optimization process specially designed for local and regional hyperthermia in order to achieve the desired specific absorption rate in the patient. It is based on a genetic algorithm coupled to a finite element formulation. The optimization method is applied to real human organs meshes assembled from computerized tomography scans. A 3D finite element formulation is used to calculate the electromagnetic field in the patient, achieved by radiofrequency or microwave sources. Space discretization is performed using incomplete first order edge elements. The sparse complex symmetric matrix equation is solved using a conjugate gradient solver with potential projection pre-conditionning. The formulation is validated by comparison of calculated specific absorption rate distributions in a phantom to temperature measurements. A genetic algorithm is used to optimize the specific absorption rate distribution to predict the phases and amplitudes of the sources leading to the best focalization. The objective function is defined as the specific absorption rate ratio in the tumour and healthy tissues. Several constraints, regarding the specific absorption rate in tumour and the total power in the patient, may be prescribed. Results obtained with two types of applicators (waveguides and annular phased array) are presented and show the faculties of the developed optimization process.