Abstract:
Knowledge of thermal history and/or distribution in biological tissues during laser based hyperthermia is
essential to achieve necrosis of tumour/carcinoma cells. A semi–analytical model to predict sub–surface
thermal distribution in translucent, soft, tissue mimics has been proposed. The model can accurately
predict the spatio–temporal temperature variations along depth and the anomalous thermal behaviour in
such media, viz. occurrence of sub-surface temperature peaks. Based on optical and thermal properties,
the augmented temperature and shift of the peak positions in case of gold nanostructure mediated tissue
phantom hyperthermia can be predicted. Employing inverse approach, the absorption coefficient of
nano-graphene infused tissue mimics is determined from the peak temperature and found to provide
appreciably accurate predictions along depth. Furthermore, a simplistic, dimensionally consistent correlation to theoretically determine the position of the peak in such media is proposed and found to be
consistent with experiments and computations. The model shows promise in predicting thermal distribution induced by lasers in tissues and deduction of therapeutic hyperthermia parameters, thereby
assisting clinical procedures by providing a priori estimates.
