Modeling time variation of blood temperature in a bioheat equation and its application to temperature analysis due to RF exposure

Temperature Dynamics in Rat Brains Exposed to Near-Field Waveguide Outputs at 2.8 GHz

Biological effects in the microwave band of the radiofrequency (RF) spectrum are thermally mediated. For acute high-power microwave exposures, these effects will depend on transient time-temperature histories within the tissue. In this article, we summarize the transient temperature response of rats exposed to RF energy emanating from an open-ended rectangular waveguide. These exposures produced specific absorption rates of approximately 36 and 203 W/kg in the whole body and brain, respectively. We then use the experimentally measured thermal data to infer the baseline perfusion rate in the brain and modify a custom thermal modeling tool based upon these findings. Finally, we compare multi-physics simulations of rat brain temperature against empirical measurements in both live and euthanized subjects and find close agreement between model and experimentation. This research revealed that baseline brain perfusion rates in rat subjects could be larger than previously assumed in the RF thermal modeling literature, and plays a significant role in the transient thermal response to high-power microwave exposures. © 2021 Bioelectromagnetics Society.

Pre-operative Assessment of Ablation Margins for Variable Blood Perfusion Metrics in a Magnetic Resonance Imaging Based Complex Breast Tumour Anatomy: Simulation Paradigms in Thermal Therapies

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Image-guided medical interventions facilitates precise visualization at treatment site. The conformal prediction for sparing healthy tissue fringes precisely in the vicinity of irregular tumour anatomy remains clinically challenging. Pre-clinical image-based computational modelling is imperative as it helps in enhancement of treatment quality, augmenting clinical-decision making, while planning, targeting, controlling, monitoring and assessing treatment response with an effective risk assessment before the onset of treatment in clinical settings. In this study, the influence of heat deposition rate (SAR), exposure duration, and variable blood perfusion metrics for a patient-specific breast tumour is quantified considering the tumour margins thereby suggesting need of geometrically accurate models.

METHODS

A three-dimensional realistic model mimicking dimensions of a female breast, comprising ~1.7 cm irregular tumour, was generated from patient specific two-dimensional DICOM format MRI images through image segmentation tools MIMICS 19.0® and 3-Matic 11.0® which is finally exported to COMSOL Multiphysics 5.2® as a volumetric mesh for finite element analysis. The Pennes bioheat transfer model and Arrhenius thermal damage model of cell-death are integrated to simulate a coupled biophysics problem. A comparative blood perfusion analysis is done to evaluate the response of tumour during heating considering thermal damage extent, including the tumour margins while sparing critical adjoining healthy tissues.

RESULTS

The evaluated thermal damage zones for 1 mm, 2 mm and 3 mm fringe heating region (beyond tumour boundary) reveals 0.09%, 0.21% and 0.34% thermal damage to the healthy tissue (which is <1%) and thus successful necrosis of the tumour. The iterative computational experiments suggests treatment margins < 5 mm are sufficient enough as heating beyond 3 mm fringe layer leads to higher damage surrounding the tumour approximately 1.5 times the tumour volume. Further, the heat-dosage requirements are 22% more for highly perfused tumour as compared to moderately perfused tumour with an approximate double time to ablate the whole tumour volume.

CONCLUSIONS

Depending on the blood perfusion characteristics of a tumour, it is a trade-off between heat-dosage (SAR) and exposure/treatment duration to get desired thermal damage including the irregular tumour boundaries while taking into account, the margin of healthy tissue. The suggested patient-specific integrated multiphysics-model based on MRI-Images may be implemented for pre-treatment planning based on the tumour blood perfusion to evaluate the thermal ablation zone dimensions clinically and thereby avoiding the damage of off-target tissues. Thus, risks involving underestimation or overestimation of thermal coagulation zones may be minimised while preserving the surrounding normal breast parenchyma.

Estimation of heat-related morbidity from weather data: A computational study in three prefectures of Japan over 2013-2018

In recent years, the rates of heat-related morbidity and mortality have begun to increase with the increase in global warming; in this context, it is noteworthy that the number of patients transported by ambulance in heat-related cases in Japan reached 95,137 in 2018. The estimation of heat-related morbidity forms a key factor in proposing and implementing suitable intervention strategies and ambulance availability and arrangements. Heat-related morbidity is known to be fairly correlated to metrics related to ambient conditions, thus necessitating the exploration of new metrics to more accurately estimate morbidity. In this study, we use an integrated computational technique relating to thermodynamics and thermoregulation to estimate daily peak core temperature elevation and daily water loss, which are linked to heat-related illnesses, from weather data of three different prefectures in Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, and Aichi). The correlations of the computed core temperature elevation and water loss as well as conventional ambient conditions are investigated in terms of number of patients suffering from heat-related illnesses transported by ambulance from 2013 to 2018. The estimated water loss per the proposed computation yields better correlation with the number of patients transported by ambulance. In particular, the weight-sum daily water loss for two to three successive days is found to be an important metric for predicting the number of patients transported by ambulance. For the same ambient conditions, morbidity is found to decrease to 0.4 owing to heat adaption at the end of summer (60 days) as compared with that at the end of the rainy season. Thus, the weighted sum of water loss and daily average ambient temperature for successive days can be used as better metrics than conventional weather data for the application of intervention strategies and planning of ambulance arrangements for heat-related morbidity.

Comparison of Thermal Response for RF Exposure in Human and Rat Models

In the international guidelines/standards for human protection against electromagnetic fields, the specific absorption rate (SAR) is used as a metric for radio-frequency field exposure. For radio-frequency near-field exposure, the peak value of the SAR averaged over 10 g of tissue is treated as a surrogate of the local temperature elevation for frequencies up to 3⁻10 GHz. The limit of 10-g SAR is derived by extrapolating the thermal damage in animal experiments. However, no reports discussed the difference between the time constant of temperature elevation in small animals and humans for local exposure. This study computationally estimated the thermal time constants of temperature elevation in human head and rat models exposed to dipole antennas at 3⁻10 GHz. The peak temperature elevation in the human brain was lower than that in the rat model, mainly because of difference in depth from the scalp. Consequently, the thermal time constant of the rat brain was smaller than that of the human brain. Additionally, the thermal time constant in human skin decreased with increasing frequency, which was mainly characterized by the effective SAR volume, whereas it was almost frequency-independent in the human brain. These findings should be helpful for extrapolating animal studies to humans.

Temperature elevation in the human brain and skin with thermoregulation during exposure to RF energy

Background

Two international guidelines/standards for human protection from electromagnetic fields define the specific absorption rate (SAR) averaged over 10 g of tissue as a metric for protection against localized radio frequency field exposure due to portable devices operating below 3–10 GHz. Temperature elevation is suggested to be a dominant effect for exposure at frequencies higher than 100 kHz. No previous studies have evaluated temperature elevation in the human head for local exposure considering thermoregulation. This study aims to discuss the temperature elevation in a human head model considering vasodilation, to discuss the conservativeness of the current limit.

Methods

This study computes the temperature elevations in an anatomical human head model exposed to radiation from a dipole antenna and truncated plane waves at 300 MHz–10GHz. The SARs in the human model are first computed using a finite-difference time-domain method. The temperature elevation is calculated by solving the bioheat transfer equation by considering the thermoregulation that simulates the vasodilation.

Results

The maximum temperature elevation in the brain appeared around its periphery. At exposures with higher intensity, the temperature elevation became larger and reached around 40 °C at the peak SAR of 100 W/kg, and became lower at higher frequencies. The temperature elevation in the brain at the current limit of 10 W/kg is at most 0.93 °C. The effect of vasodilation became notable for tissue temperature elevations higher than 1–2 °C and for an SAR of 10 W/kg. The temperature at the periphery was below the basal brain temperature (37 °C).

Conclusions

The temperature elevation under the current guideline for occupational exposure is within the ranges of brain temperature variability for environmental changes in daily life. The effect of vasodilation is significant, especially at higher frequencies where skin temperature elevation is dominant.

Multiphysics and Thermal Response Models to Improve Accuracy of Local Temperature Estimation in Rat Cortex under Microwave Exposure

The rapid development of wireless technology has led to widespread concerns regarding adverse human health effects caused by exposure to electromagnetic fields. Temperature elevation in biological bodies is an important factor that can adversely affect health. A thermophysiological model is desired to quantify microwave (MW) induced temperature elevations. In this study, parameters related to thermophysiological responses for MW exposures were estimated using an electromagnetic-thermodynamics simulation technique. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in which parameters related to regional cerebral blood flow in a rat model were extracted at a high degree of accuracy through experimental measurements for localized MW exposure at frequencies exceeding 6 GHz. The findings indicate that the improved modeling parameters yield computed results that match well with the measured quantities during and after exposure in rats. It is expected that the computational model will be helpful in estimating the temperature elevation in the rat brain at multiple observation points (that are difficult to measure simultaneously) and in explaining the physiological changes in the local cortex region.

SAR Simulations & Safety

At ultra-high fields, the assessment of radiofrequency (RF) safety presents several new challenges compared to low-field systems. Multi-channel RF transmit coils in combination with parallel transmit techniques produce time-dependent and spatially varying power loss densities in the tissue. Further, in ultra-high-field systems, localized field effects can be more pronounced due to a transition from the quasi stationary to the electromagnetic field regime. Consequently, local information on the RF field is required for reliable RF safety assessment as well as for monitoring of RF exposure during MR examinations. Numerical RF and thermal simulations for realistic exposure scenarios with anatomical body models are currently the only practical way to obtain the requisite local information on magnetic and electric field distributions as well as tissue temperature. In this article, safety regulations and the fundamental characteristics of RF field distributions in ultra-high-field systems are reviewed. Numerical methods for computation of RF fields as well as typical requirements for the analysis of realistic multi-channel RF exposure scenarios including anatomical body models are highlighted. In recent years, computation of the local tissue temperature has become of increasing interest, since a more accurate safety assessment is expected because temperature is directly related to tissue damage. Regarding thermal simulation, bio-heat transfer models and approaches for taking into account the physiological response of the human body to RF exposure are discussed. In addition, suitable methods are presented to validate calculated RF and thermal results with measurements. Finally, the concept of generalized simulation-based specific absorption rate (SAR) matrix models is discussed. These models can be incorporated into local SAR monitoring in multi-channel MR systems and allow the design of RF pulses under constraints for local SAR.

Development of computational small animal models and their applications in preclinical imaging and therapy research

The development of multimodality preclinical imaging techniques and the rapid growth of realistic computer simulation tools have promoted the construction and application of computational laboratory animal models in preclinical research. Since the early 1990s, over 120 realistic computational animal models have been reported in the literature and used as surrogates to characterize the anatomy of actual animals for the simulation of preclinical studies involving the use of bioluminescence tomography, fluorescence molecular tomography, positron emission tomography, single-photon emission computed tomography, microcomputed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and optical imaging. Other applications include electromagnetic field simulation, ionizing and nonionizing radiation dosimetry, and the development and evaluation of new methodologies for multimodality image coregistration, segmentation, and reconstruction of small animal images. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the history and fundamental technologies used for the development of computational small animal models with a particular focus on their application in preclinical imaging as well as nonionizing and ionizing radiation dosimetry calculations. An overview of the overall process involved in the design of these models, including the fundamental elements used for the construction of different types of computational models, the identification of original anatomical data, the simulation tools used for solving various computational problems, and the applications of computational animal models in preclinical research. The authors also analyze the characteristics of categories of computational models (stylized, voxel-based, and boundary representation) and discuss the technical challenges faced at the present time as well as research needs in the future.

FDTD computation of temperature elevation in the elderly for far-field RF exposures

Core temperature elevation and perspiration in younger and older adults is investigated for plane-wave exposure at whole-body averaged specific absorption rate of 0.4 W kg(-1). Numeric Japanese male model is considered together with a thermoregulatory response formula proposed in the authors' previous study. The frequencies considered were at 65 MHz and 2 GHz where the total power absorption in humans becomes maximal for the allowable power density prescribed in the international guidelines. From the computational results used here, the core temperature elevation in the older adult model was larger than that in the younger one at both frequencies. The reason for this difference is attributable to the difference of sweating, which is originated from the difference in the threshold activating the sweating and the decline in sweating in the legs.

Computational estimation of decline in sweating in the elderly from measured body temperatures and sweating for passive heat exposure

Several studies reported the difference in heat tolerance between younger and older adults, which may be attributable to the decline in the sweating rate. One of the studies suggested a hypothesis that the dominant factor causing the decline in sweating was the decline in thermal sensitivity due to a weaker signal from the periphery to the regulatory centres. However, no quantitative investigation of the skin temperature threshold for activating the sweating has been conducted in previous studies. In this study, we developed a computational code to simulate the time evolution of the temperature variation and sweating in realistic human models under heat exposure, in part by comparing the computational results with measured data from younger and older adults. Based on our computational results, the difference in the threshold temperatures for activating the thermophysiological response, especially for sweating, is examined between older and younger adults. The threshold for activating sweating in older individuals was found to be about 1.5 °C higher than that in younger individuals. However, our computation did not suggest that it was possible to evaluate the central alteration with ageing by comparing the computation with the measurements for passive heat exposure, since the sweating rate is marginally affected by core temperature elevation at least for the scenarios considered here. The computational technique developed herein is useful for understanding the thermophysiological response of older individuals from measured data.

Computational modeling of temperature elevation and thermoregulatory response in the brains of anesthetized rats locally exposed at 1.5 GHz

The dominant effect of human exposures to microwaves is caused by temperature elevation ('thermal effect'). In the safety guidelines/standards, the specific absorption rate averaged over a specific volume is used as a metric for human protection from localized exposure. Further investigation on the use of this metric is required, especially in terms of thermophysiology. The World Health Organization (2006 RF research agenda) has given high priority to research into the extent and consequences of microwave-induced temperature elevation in children. In this study, an electromagnetic-thermal computational code was developed to model electromagnetic power absorption and resulting temperature elevation leading to changes in active blood flow in response to localized 1.457 GHz exposure in rat heads. Both juvenile (4 week old) and young adult (8 week old) rats were considered. The computational code was validated against measurements for 4 and 8 week old rats. Our computational results suggest that the blood flow rate depends on both brain and core temperature elevations. No significant difference was observed between thermophysiological responses in 4 and 8 week old rats under these exposure conditions. The computational model developed herein is thus applicable to set exposure conditions for rats in laboratory investigations, as well as in planning treatment protocols in the thermal therapy.

Improved numerical modelling of heat transfer in human tissue exposed to RF energy

A novel numerical model to simulate thermal response of human body tissues exposed to RF energy is presented in this article. It is based on a new algorithm for the construction of a realistic blood vessel network, a new model of blood flow velocity distribution and an approach to solve the bio-heat equation in human tissue with variable and initially unknown blood temperature distribution. The algorithm generates a discrete 3D representation of both arterial and venous vascular networks and a continuous blood velocity vector field for arbitrary enclosed geometries required to represent the complex anatomy of human body and blood flow. The results obtained in this article by applying the developed method to realistic exposure conditions demonstrates relative difference in thermal response of the exposed tissue compared to results obtained by conventional bio-heat equation with constant blood perfusion and temperature. The developed technique may provide more accurate and realistic modelling in thermal dosimetry studies of human body RF exposure.