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Modelling of Laser-Induced Heating of Tissues for Therapeutic Applications

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, India Section A: Physical Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Understanding the thermal response of laser-irradiated biological samples is important to optimize the efficiency of photo-thermal therapy for selective destruction of cancerous cells. The present review article discusses the attempts that have been made to numerically model the process of light propagation through biological tissue samples and to understand the thermal response of such laser-irradiated samples. Numerical approaches for solving the classical form of radiative transfer equation (RTE) and the subsequent coupling of the solution of RTE with various bio-heat transfer models (Fourier as well as non-Fourier) for finding the temperature distribution within the volume of the tissue phantom that is subjected to laser-irradiation are discussed. Applications of contrast enhancing reagents (for instance, gold nanorods and/or nanoshells) for improving the therapeutic performance of laser-based photo-thermal therapy is also highlighted.

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Notes

  1. One of the major implications of using short pulse lasers as the light source during numerical modeling of thermal response of laser-irradiated tissue samples comes in the form that due to the inherent time lag between the driving potential (incident laser pulses) and the response of the irradiated sample (temperature changes), the assumption of infinite speed of propagation of thermal front in the medium cannot be strictly followed and hence one has to use non-Fourier heat conduction models for accurately modeling the thermal response of biological tissue samples. Such developments are discussed in the latter half of this article.

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Acknowledgements

I express my sincere gratitude to Prof. P.K. Gupta for inviting me to write this review article and for providing useful comments/suggestions for improving the technical contents and the readability of the article. Some of the material covered in the review article is based on the Ph.D. research work of Dr. Sumit Kumar. The author acknowledges the valuable inputs of Dr. Sumit Kumar in this context.

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  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, 400076, India

    Atul Srivastava

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  1. Atul Srivastava
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Correspondence to Atul Srivastava.

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Srivastava, A. Modelling of Laser-Induced Heating of Tissues for Therapeutic Applications. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., India, Sect. A Phys. Sci. 88, 461–472 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40010-018-0520-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40010-018-0520-8

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