Animal test on infrared image-guided percutaneous hot saline injection therapy

Percutaneous Hot Saline Injection Therapy (PSIT) has recently been proved to be a powerful minimally invasive way to destroy malignant tumor cells. However, this approach may also possibly cause thermal injury to the surrounding normal tissues during the treatment. For example, an excessive or insufficient injection would lead to very undesirable results. The main reasons can be attributed to the lack of a flexible monitoring method. In this paper, we propose to implement thermal infrared imaging to guide the whole process of performing PSIT to treat superficial tumors. Conceptual experiments were performed in vivo on the left thigh of an anaesthetized rabbit. It was demonstrated that the infrared temperature mapping across the skin surface clearly reflects the heating status of the target tissues. Along with the mathematical simulation, such information can easily be incorporated into the computer code to reconstruct the spatial and transient temperature field around the subject. The obtained data will serve as an important index for effectively administering the thermal dose on the target tissues while preserving the surrounding normal tissues from burning during PSIT.