Analysis of Heat Transfer Dynamics in Biological Tissues During Thermal Therapy and Development of a Three-Dimensional Computational Model for Real-Time Optimization of Thermal Device Parameters

Abstract

Thermal therapies namely, thermal ablation, hyperthermia, and laser play an important role in the treatment of various medical conditions especially, malignancies focusing on tumor/tumor-like tissues. These therapies require careful temperature control to ensure effective treatment while avoiding damage to adjacent healthy tissue. Optimisation of thermal therapies requires accurate bioheat transfer modelling of soft biological tissues. Heat transfer in soft tissues is dictated by thermal conduction as well as by perfusion and metabolic processes, therefore, a reliable thermal model is crucial for a successful treatment outcome. Although substantial contributions also exist for modeling heat propagation in biological tissues, it is still difficult to optimize parameters of thermal therapies in real time, especially for heterogeneous tissue behavior and surrounding heterogeneous environments during the treatment. This study is based on the development of a novel three-dimensional computational model for predicting heat transfer dynamics in biological tissues during thermal therapeutic processes, which can help optimize thermal device parameters to achieve better treatment responses in real time. A three-dimensional bioheat transfer model was created and compared to experimental temperature distributions under various thermal therapy conditions, comparing them with a high degree of accuracy. The model could reproduce the thermal response of tissues during microwave ablation and laser therapy. Their model includes online optimization algorithms to provide the clinician with a means to adjust the parameters of a thermal device to account for changing tissue responses to stay within safe and effective bounds. Our model serves as a strong basis to optimize thermal therapies, which will benefit patients by increasing the accuracy of heating delivery and reducing collateral effect on the adjacent healthy tissues.