Development and Validation of a Brain Phantom for Therapeutic Cooling Devices

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Thermal Physics
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Therapeutic hypothermia is a proven treatment for brain injuries and conditions like epilepsy and concussions.
• Accurate thermal modeling of the brain is crucial for developing and optimizing cooling therapies.
• Existing methods require validation against reliable experimental models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and analyze a novel thermal brain phantom for studying temperature reduction.
• To validate a finite difference (FD) model against empirical data from the phantom.
• To assess the biofidelity of the phantom's thermal response compared to a perfused brain.

Main Methods:

• A thermal brain phantom was constructed using a potassium-neutralized, superabsorbent copolymer hydrogel.
• Cooling trials were conducted using a cooling block and water flow (up to 6 gph) simulating blood flow.
• Results were compared to a validated finite difference (FD) model using parameters for both the phantom and brain parenchyma.

Main Results:

• The FD model showed good agreement with the empirical phantom cooling results.
• The phantom's thermal response closely matched the predicted brain response (within 3.5% at physiological flow).
• This indicates a biofidelic thermal response, validating the phantom's utility.

Conclusions:

• The developed thermal brain phantom is a validated and biofidelic tool for thermal studies.
• The finite difference model is reliable for predicting brain cooling.
• The phantom serves as a platform for future research into thermally mediated therapies for the cerebral cortex.