An Adaptive Magnetic Field Source for Magnetic Drug Fixation

Abstract

Magnetic drug targeting (MDT) therapy is usually controlled through the magnetic field produced by a permanent magnet; the solution proposed and assessed here considers a planar spiral coil (PSC) or a system of such coils, as an equally effective magnetic field source. The PSC may be designed to provide proper configurations of the magnetic field gradients, required for the generation of high magnetic body forces and to limit, in the same time, unwanted side effects affecting adjacent tissue (heating, excitable tissue stimulation). Simplified numerical models (2D projections) and more realistic structures (3D representations) are shown and analyzed in the paper; the electromagnetic and heat transfer problems are solved for different powering schemes applied to the coils.