Biomedical subjects

R B Roemer

Publications and source records attributed to R B Roemer.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Closed-form solution for the thermal dose delivered during single pulse thermal therapies.

This study provides a closed form, analytical expression for the thermal dose delivered by a single heating pulse. The solution is derived using the effective cooling method and the non-linear Sapareto-Dewey equation to determine the thermal dose delivered by the time-temperature history of a treatment. The analytical solutions are used to determine the optimal treatment conditions, i.e. those that exactly deliver the desired thermal dose at a specified time. For purposes of illustration, this study focuses on a 'conservative' clinical approach in which the desired thermal dose is delivered at the end of the 'cool down' period. The analytical results show that, after a clinical strategy has been chosen (e.g. conservative, aggressive or intermediate), the user can only specify two free variables for such an optimal treatment. Results are presented which suggest that a practical approach would be to specify both (1) the desired thermal dose to be delivered to the target (the clinically relevant outcome) and (2) the peak temperature to be reached (a measurable, clinically useful, patient dependent response variable that can be employed in feedback control systems); and then determine the associated, optimal heating magnitude and duration that need to be used to reach that dose and temperature. The results also reveal that, with a given patient condition and power deposition distribution (together specifying an effective cooling time constant for the treatment) and a specified thermal dose, there is a maximum allowable peak temperature that, if exceeded, will result in 'over-dosing' the heated tissue. The results also show that avoiding such non-optimal 'over-dosing' will be difficult in most high temperature therapies since, when high temperatures are produced in tissues, the temperature decay must be very fast in order to avoid over-dosing during the cooling period. Such rapid cooling can only occur if short effective cooling time constants are present-either as a result of large tissue blood flows in the patient or due to large conduction effects induced by the use of highly localized power deposition sources.

Humans↗

PubMed2005

A thermo-pharmacokinetic model of tissue temperature oscillations during localized heating.

Thermally-induced large blood flow increases and oscillations have been experimentally observed in both muscle and prostate tissues. However, the bio-physical/-chemical mechanisms underlying these phenomena remain undiscovered. To study the basic nature of these coupled thermal-mass transport processes, this study combines a compartmental vasodilator pharmacokinetics model with a bio-heat-transfer temperature model. The resulting simulated temperature responses to different applied power levels closely match both the overall behaviour and the fine structure of the complex temperature responses observed in vivo. This suggests that the coupled thermo-pharmacokinetic model captures the essence of the links between tissue temperature and blood flow oscillations and of the role of the important vaso-active substances. Thus, it appears that such thermo-pharmacokinetic models can provide a basis for helping to understand and quantify the fundamental bio-physical/-chemical processes that couple the transient tissue temperature distributions to blood flow oscillations. Such combined models allow investigators to directly predict tissue blood flow responses to applied power and avoid the need to make ad hoc assumptions regulating the blood flow rates present in heated tissues.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Improved accuracy and consistency in T1 measurement of flowing blood by using inversion recovery GE-EPI.

Problems associated with techniques currently used to measure the T1 of flowing blood are evaluated and a method to improve the consistency and repeatability of measurements is presented. Similar to some currently used techniques, the pulse sequence employs a nonselective adiabatic inversion pulse followed by a series of ECG-gated gradient echo EPI (echo planar imaging) images to obtain images where the blood (fluid) signal exhibits a T1-dependent inversion recovery signal from which the spin lattice relaxation constant (T1) of the flowing fluid can be measured. The new method combines curve fitting with a measure of the curve null point to acquire more accurate and consistent T1 values. Simulation and experimental results show that this combined fitting-nulling method is more stable and consistent in measuring the T1 of flowing fluid. The feasibility of temperature measurement of a flowing fluid based on the temperature dependence of the T1 of water protons is shown in this paper. ECG gating is used to reduce the effects of cyclic intensity changes for measurement of T1 in pulsatile flowing blood.

Blood Flow Velocity↗

PubMed2004

Optimal power deposition patterns for ideal high temperature therapy/hyperthermia treatments.

If it were possible to achieve, an ideal high temperature therapy or hyperthermia treatment would involve a single heating session and yield a desired thermal dose distribution in the tumour that would be attained in the shortest possible treatment time without heating critical normal tissues excessively. Simultaneously achieving all of these goals is impossible in practice, thus requiring trade-offs that allow clinicians to approach more closely some of these ideal goals at the expense of others. To study the basic nature of a subset of these trade-offs, the present simulation study looked at a simple, ideal case in which the tumour is heated by a single, optimized (with respect to space) power pulse, with no power deposition in the normal tissue. Results were obtained for two different clinical strategies (i.e. trade-off approaches), including: (1) an 'aggressive' approach, wherein the desired, uniform thermal dose is completely delivered to the tumour during the power-on period. This approach gives the clinician the satisfaction of knowing that the tumour was treated completely while power was being delivered, and yields the shortest attainable tumour dose delivery time. However, that benefit is attained at the cost of both 'overdosing' the tumour during the subsequent cool down period and, paradoxically, requiring a longer, overall treatment time. Here, the treatment time is considered as that time interval from the initiation of the heating pulse to the time at which the entire tumour has decayed to a specified 'safe' temperature--below 43 degrees C for our calculations. And, (2) a 'conservative' approach is considered, wherein the desired uniform dose is attained at the post-heating time at which the complete tumour cools back down to 'basal' conditions, taken as 4 h in this study. This conservative approach requires less applied power and energy and avoids the 'overdosing' problem, but at the cost of having a tumour dose delivery time that can be significantly longer than the heating pulse duration. This approach can require that clinicians wait a significant time after the power has been turned off before being able to confirm that the desired tumour thermal dose was reached. The present findings show that: (1) for both clinical strategies, an optimal power deposition shape (with respect to position in the tumour) can always be found that provides the desired uniform thermal dose in the tumour, regardless of the heating pulse duration chosen or the tumour perfusion pattern; and (2) shorter heating pulses are preferable to longer ones in that they require less total energy, take less total time to treat the patients, and have optimal power deposition patterns less influenced by perfusion. On the other hand, shorter pulses always require higher temperatures, and for the 'aggressive' clinical approach, they give significantly larger excess thermal doses in the tumour. The aggressive approach always requires longer treatment times than comparable conservative treatments. The optimal power patterns for both strategies involve a high-power density at the tumour boundary, which frequently creates a 'thermal wave' that contributes significantly to the final thermal dose distribution attained.

Algorithms↗

PubMed1999

Conditions for equivalency of countercurrent vessel heat transfer formulations.

Previous models of countercurrent blood vessel heat transfer have used one of two, different, equally valid but previously unreconciled formulations, based either on: (1) the difference between the arterial and venous vessels' average wall temperatures, or (2) the difference between those vessels' blood bulk fluid temperatures. This paper shows that these two formulations are only equivalent when the four, previously undefined, "convective heat transfer coefficients" that are used in the bulk temperature difference formulation (two coefficients each for the artery and vein) have very specific, problem-dependent relationships to the standard convective heat transfer coefficients. (The average wall temperature formulation uses those standard coefficients correctly.) The correct values of these bulk temperature difference formulation "convective heat transfer coefficients" are shown to be either: (1) specific functions of (a) the tissue conduction resistances, (b) the standard convective heat transfer coefficients, and (c) the independently specified bulk arterial, bulk venous and tissue temperatures, or (2) arbitrary, user defined values. Thus, they are generally not equivalent to the standard convective heat transfer coefficients that are regularly used, and must change values depending on the blood and tissue temperatures. This dependence can significantly limit the convenience and usefulness of the bulk temperature difference formulations.

Arteries↗

PubMed1999

Engineering aspects of hyperthermia therapy.

The continuing accrual of positive results in clinical cancer trials of adjunctive, synergistic hyperthermia therapy remains a strong motivation for the development of improved hyperthermia equipment and software. Indeed, the lack of needed engineering tools can be viewed as the major stumbling block to hyperthermia's effective clinical implementation. Developing clinically effective systems will be difficult, however, because (a) it requires solving several complex engineering problems, for which (b) setting appropriate design and evaluation goals is currently difficult owing to a lack of critical biological, physiological, and clinical knowledge, two tasks which must (c) be accomplished within a complicated social/political structure.

Biomedical Engineering↗

PubMed1998

Reduced-order modeling for hyperthermia: an extended balanced-realization-based approach.

Accurate thermal models are needed in hyperthermia cancer treatments for such tasks as actuator and sensor placement design, parameter estimation, and feedback temperature control. The complexity of the human body produces full-order models which are too large for effective execution of these tasks, making use of reduced-order models necessary. However, standard balanced-realization (SBR)-based model reduction techniques require a priori knowledge of the particular placement of actuators and sensors for model reduction. Since placement design is intractable (computationally) on the full-order models, SBR techniques must use ad hoc placements. To alleviate this problem, an extended balanced-realization (EBR)-based model-order reduction approach is presented. The new technique allows model order reduction to be performed over all possible placement designs and does not require ad hoc placement designs. It is shown that models obtained using the EBR method are more robust to intratreatment changes in the placement of the applied power field than those models obtained using the SBR method.

Algorithms↗

PubMed1998

A generic tissue convective energy balance equation: Part I--theory and derivation.

A new equation for calculating temperatures in living tissues, the tissue convective energy balance equation (TCEBE), is derived using only a few assumptions. The resulting equation is basic, general and applicable to any tissue. The (unsolved) TCEBE is used: (a) to relate both Pennes' BHTE perfusion-related parameter (W) and the effective thermal conductivity equation's perfusion-related parameter (keff) to the true capillary perfusion Pcap, and (b) to show that both W and keff are defined, nonphysiological variables, which are only related to Pcap in a problem-dependent manner. Finally, the derivation of the relationship between W and Pcap provides a complete derivation of Pennes' BHTE, something that has not been previously done.

Body Temperature↗

PubMed1996

A counter current vascular network model of heat transfer in tissues.

A fully conjugated blood vessel network model (FCBVNM) for calculating tissue temperatures has been developed, tested, and studied. This type of model represents a more fundamental approach to modeling temperatures in tissues than do the generally used approximate equations such as the Pennes'BHTE or effective thermal conductivity equations. As such, this type of model can be used to study many important questions at a more basic level. For example, in the particular hyperthermia application studied herein, a simple vessel network model predicts that the role of counter current veins is minimal and that their presence does not significantly affect the tissue temperature profiles: the arteries, however, removed a significant fraction of the power deposited in the tissue. These more fundamental models can also be used to check the validity of approximate equations. For example, using the present simple model, when the temperatures calculated by the FCBVNM are used for comparing predictions from two approximation equations (a simple effective thermal conductivity and a simple Pennes' bio-heat transfer equation formulation of the same problem) it is found that the Pennes' equation better approximates the FCBVNM temperatures than does the k(eff) model. These results also show that the "perfusion" value (W) in the Pennes' BHTE is not necessarily equal to the "true" tissue perfusion (P) as calculated from mass flow rate considerations, but can be greater than, equal to, or less than that value depending on (1) how many vessel levels are modeled by the BHTE, and (2) the "true" tissue perfusion magnitude. This study uses a simple, generic vessel network model to demonstrate the potential usefulness of such fully conjugated vessel network models, and the associated need for developing and applying more complicated and realistic vascular network models. As more realistic vascular models (vessel sizes, orientations, and flow rates) are developed, the predictions of the fully conjugated models should more closely model and approach the true tissue temperature distributions, thus making these fully conjugated models more accurate and valuable tools for studying tissue heat transfer processes.

Animals↗

PubMed1994

Analytical solutions of Pennes bio-heat transfer equation with a blood vessel.

The heat transfer within a perfused tissue in the presence of a vessel is considered. The bio-heat transfer equation is used for the perfused tissue and a lumped capacitance analysis is used for the convection in the vessel with a constant Nusselt number. Analytical solutions are obtained for two cases: (i) the arterial temperature of the perfused blood in the bio-heat transfer equation is equal to the axially varying mixed mean temperature of the blood in the vessel and, (ii) that arterial temperature is assumed to be constant. Dimensionless equilibrium length and temperature expressions are obtained and presented.

Animals↗

PubMed1994

The simulation of discrete vessel effects in experimental hyperthermia.

The ability of two simple thermal models to predict experimentally measured in vivo temperature profiles was compared. These comparisons were done both with and without the inclusion of separate, discrete blood vessels. The two tissue models were: 1) Pennes' Bio-Heat Transfer equation (BHTE), and 2) an effective thermal conductivity equation (ETCE). The experimental temperature data were measured (Moros, 1990; Moros et al., 1993) in the thighs of anesthetized greyhound dogs under hyperthermic conditions generated by scanned focused ultrasound. Blood vessels were added to the thermal models in counter-current pairs transiting the model domain. The blood vessels in both models were assumed to have a constant heat transfer coefficient, and an axially varying mixed mean temperature. The vessel locations were determined a posteriori, via inspection of the experimental temperature data. Least square error fits of the predicted model temperatures to the experimental temperature data were obtained by adjusting both (a) the mass flow rate within and (b) the position of each blood vessel, and (c) the value of either the perfusion parameter (W) in the BHTE or the effective thermal conductivity parameter (Keff) in the ETCE. When small numbers (3-4) of blood vessel pairs were included, both of the models showed significant improvement in their ability to predict the experimental temperatures. Although both models performed well in terms of predicting temperatures near large vessels, the BHTE had a statistically significant better ability to predict the complete set of measured temperatures at all locations.

Angiography, Digital Subtraction↗

PubMed1993

Temperature distribution in tissues from a regular array of hot source implants: an analytical approximation.

An approximate analytical model based upon the bioheat transfer equation is derived and used to calculate temperatures within a perfused region implanted regularly with dielectrically coated hot source implants; for example, hot water tubes, electrically heated rods, or inductively heated ferromagnetic implants. The effect of a regular array of mutually parallel heat sources of cylindrical shape is approximated by idealizing one of the boundary conditions. The solution, as could be expected, is in terms of modified Bessel functions. In calculating the temperature of each thermoregulating source in the array, the steady state power balance is enforced. The important feature of the model is that the finite size of implant diameter and its dielectric coating can be incorporated. The effect of thickness and thermal conductivity of the coating on the source and tissue temperatures along with various other interesting features are deduced from this model. The analytically calculated implant and tissue temperatures are compared with those of a numerical 3-D finite difference model. The analytical model also is used to define a range of parameters such that minimal therapeutic temperatures will be achieved in the implanted volume without exceeding prescribed maximum temperatures. This approach leads to a simple means of selecting implant spacing and regulation temperatures of hot source methods prospectively.

Blood Flow Velocity↗

PubMed1993

Improved Cartesian coordinate finite difference simulations of small cylindrical objects.

An analytical, cylindrical coordinate formula for the thermal resistance around small cylindrical objects has been incorporated into finite difference equations in Cartesian coordinates to improve the accuracy of the numerical simulations of hyperthermia cancer treatments. This is done by introducing a circular finite difference control volume which is centered on the cylindrical object. The temperature distributions calculated from this new formulation and from the formulation obtained from a conventional, rectangular control volume are compared to the predictions from an analytical solution. The results show that for a given Cartesian grid spacing, the new method is superior to the conventional one. This will allow more accurate numerical solutions to be obtained at larger grid spacings when the effect of blood vessels or other cylindrical objects, such as ferromagnetic implants, hot water tubes, etc., are being investigated.

Humans↗

PubMed1993

Comparison of the adjoint and influence coefficient methods for solving the inverse hyperthermia problem.

An adjoint formulation is derived and used to determine the elements in the Jacobian matrix associated with the inverse problem of estimating the blood perfusion and temperature fields during hyperthermia cancer treatments. This method and a previously developed influence coefficient method for obtaining that matrix are comparatively evaluated by solving a set of numerically simulated inverse hyperthermia problems. The adjoint method has the advantage of requiring fewer solutions of the bioheat transfer equation to estimate the Jacobian than does the influence coefficient method when the number of measurement sensors is significantly smaller than the number of unknown parameters. Thus, it could be a preferable method to use in hyperthermia applications where the number of sensors is strictly limited by patient considerations. However, the adjoint method requires that CPU time intensive convolutions be numerically evaluated. Comparisons of the performance of the adjoint formulation and the influence coefficient method show that, first, there is a critical ratio of the number of measurement sensors to the number of unknown parameters at which the CPU time per iteration required to calculate the Jacobian matrix is the same for both methods. The adjoint method is faster than the influence coefficient method only when the value of the ratio is less than that critical value. For the hyperthermia problems investigated in the present study, this only occurs for cases with a very small number of measurement sensors. This presents a potential problem for clinical applications because the fewer measurement sensors used, the less information that can be gathered to correctly solve the inverse problem.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Blood Flow Velocity↗

PubMed1993

Multiple minima in inverse hyperthermia temperature estimation problems.

Using one-, two-, and three-dimensional numerical simulation models it is shown that multiple minima solutions exist for some inverse hyperthermia temperature estimation problems. This is a new observation that has important implications for all potential applications of these inverse techniques. The general conditions under which these multiple minima occur are shown to be solely due to the existence of symmetries in the bio-heat transfer model used to solve the inverse problem. General rules for determining the number of these global minimum points in the unknown parameter (perfusion) space are obtained for several geometrically symmetric (with respect to the sensor placement and the inverse case blood perfusion model) one-, two-, and three-dimensional problem formulations with multiple perfusion regions when no model mismatch is present. As the amount of this symmetry is successively reduced, all but one of these global minima caused by symmetry become local minima. A general approach for (a) detecting when the inverse algorithm has converged to a local minimum, and (b) for using that knowledge to direct the search algorithm toward the global minimum is presented. A three-dimensional, random perfusion distribution example is given which illustrates the effects of the multiple minima on the performance of a state and parameter estimation algorithm. This algorithm attempts to reconstruct the entire temperature field during simulated hyperthermia treatments based on knowledge of measured temperatures from a limited number of locations.

Algorithms↗

PubMed1993

A semilinear state and parameter estimation algorithm for inverse hyperthermia problems.

An improved state and parameter estimation algorithm has been developed which decreases the total computational time required to accurately reconstruct complete hyperthermia temperature fields. Within this improved iterative estimation algorithm, if the change in the unknown perfusion parameters is small a linear approximation scheme is implemented in which the old Jacobian matrix (the sensitivity matrix) is used, instead of recalculating the new Jacobian matrix for the next iteration. In the hyperthermia temperature estimation problem the relationship between the temperature and the blood perfusion based on the bioheat transfer equation is generally nonlinear. However, the temperature can be approximated as a linear function of the blood perfusion over a certain range thus allowing this improved approach to work. Results show that if the temperature is approximated as a linear (or quasi-linear) function of the blood perfusion, the linearizing approach considerably reduces the CPU time required to accurately reconstruct the temperature field. The limiting case of implementing this approach is to calculate the Jacobian matrix for each iteration, which is identical to the approach used in the original nonlinear algorithm. Critical values of determining whether or not there is a need to recalculate the new Jacobian matrix during the iterations are presented for several inverse hyperthermia temperature estimation problems.

Algorithms↗

PubMed1993

Reconstruction of experimental hyperthermia temperature distributions: application of state and parameter estimation.

Subsets of data from spatially sampled temperatures measured in each of nine experimental heatings of normal canine thighs were used to test the feasibility of using a state and parameter estimation (SPE) technique to predict the complete measured data set in each heating. Temperature measurements were made at between seventy-two and ninety-six stationary thermocouple locations within the thigh, and measurements from as few as thirteen of these locations were used as inputs to the estimation algorithm. The remaining (non "input") measurements were compared to the predicted temperatures for the corresponding "unmeasured" locations to judge the ability of the estimation algorithm to accurately reconstruct the complete experimental data set. The results show that the predictions of the "unmeasured" steady-state temperatures are quite accurate in general (average errors usually < 0.5 degrees C; and small variances about those averages) and that this reconstruction procedure can yield improved descriptors of the steady-state temperature distribution. The accuracy of the reconstructed temperature distribution was not strongly affected by either the number of perfusion zones or by the number of input sensors used by the algorithm. One situation extensively considered in this study modeled the thigh with twenty-seven independent regions of perfusion. For this situation, measurements from ninety-six to thirteen sensors were used as input to the estimation algorithm. The average error for all of these cases ranged from -0.55 degrees C to +0.75 degrees C, respectively, and was not strongly related to the number of sensors used as input to the estimation algorithm.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Algorithms↗

PubMed1992

Optimal power deposition with finite-sized, planar hyperthermia applicator arrays.

Improved hyperthermia applicator technology is allowing finer spatial power resolution within the heated tissue volume. Effective utilization of these planar applicator arrays requires an understanding of the interrelationships between the lateral dimensions of the tumor and the applicators, the power field produced by the applicators, the amount of surface cooling, the tumor tissue blood perfusion, and the normal tissue blood perfusion. These interrelationships are investigated using three-dimensional power patterns and temperature fields produced by optimizing the power amplitudes of the individual applicators located within an array of small, but finite, planar applicators. Five major conclusions are obtained. First, optimization works and is effective in determining optimal power fields. Second, for optimal treatments the lateral dimensions of a single superficial applicator need to extend beyond the tumor boundary. Third, surface cooling is needed to reduce the high normal tissue temperatures at shallow depths. Fourth, finer power resolution becomes more important as the tumor size decreases, but, little improvement in the temperature field is achieved beyond a 3 x 3 array configuration. Fifth, increasing the normal blood perfusion rate can decrease the temperature on the tumor boundary if direct power deposition on that boundary is unavailable.

Equipment Design↗