Heating analysis of resonant cavity applicator with blood perfusion

This paper describes the heating properties of a resonant cavity applicator for heating brain tumors, calculated by a finite element method (FEM) with blood perfusion. We have already proposed the resonant cavity applicator for treating brain tumors and checked the effectiveness of the applicator experimentally, using a prototype heating system with an agar phantom. In this paper, first, we constructed a simple model with blood vessels for calculating temperature distributions using the FEM. In the simple model, a single thick blood vessel branches into two narrow blood vessels. Second, calculated temperature distributions were presented by solving the heat-flow equation, respectively. Also, a comparison of the temperature distributions when the flow conditions were changed were discussed. From these results, it was found that the cooling effects of blood perfusion appear at the heated area approximately 2 cm away from the blood vessels.