Document Type

Conference Presentation

Publication Date

1997

Abstract

Thermal models are used to predict temperature distributions of heated tissues during thermal therapy. Blood flow plays an important role in tissue heat transfer, yet there is no universally accepted mathematical formulation to model its effects during tissue heating. A better understanding of this process would improve current models of bioheat transfer. The effects of blood flow on the temperature distribution are due to convective heat transfer caused by blood motion and are classified into the effects of thermally significant vessels (vessels with diameter greater than 0.2mm-0.4mm) and the effects of the smaller vessels of the vasculature. Theoretical models predict that large vessels create flow dependent localized temperature gradients. However, there is a paucity of experimental data that examine temperature gradients near large vessels in heated tissues. Furthermore, there are no studies that spatially correlate vessel location with measured steady state and transient temperature profiles. This work examines the flow dependence of temperature profiles recorded in heated tissues near large vessels and correlates spatial fluctuations in the temperature with vascular geometry obtained by volumetric computed tomography (CT) imaging.

Comments

Online version of a conference paper originally published as: Spatial Correlation of Flow Induced Temperature Gradients During Tissue Heating with Vascular Geometry using CT Angiography: Implications for Thermal Therapy, Kolios, M.C. Sherar, M.D, Worthington, A. E., Holdsworth, D.W. and Hunt, J.W. (1997), In Proceedings of the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (1997), p. 149-151.