A sensitivity analysis of the step-temperature technique for measurement of local tissue blood perfusion

The step-temperature technique is a thermal technique that uses a small thermistor probe for measuring blood perfusion of tissue. The blood perfusion is derived from temperature and power measurements using equations that describe heat transfer in the integrated probe/tissue system. A numerical experiment is used to analyse the theoretical error caused by the assumptions used in the technique. The effects of the bead parameters, tissue parameters and measurement parameters are investigated. The study results are in accordance with experimental phenomena described previously. An optimal measurement time window is found to be 4-10 s, dependent mainly on the thermal conductivity and blood perfusion of tissue measured. This research will lead to reduce perfusion measurement errors.