Microwave ablation planning in fatty liver based on fat content-dependent electrical properties

Hepatic steatosis alters tissue electrical properties (EPs), which can substantially influence microwave ablation (MWA) outcomes but are rarely considered in current MWA models. This study proposes a Dixon-based method to reconstruct hepatic EPs under varying fat contents (FCs) and applies the reconstructed EPs to quantitatively investigate the influence of hepatic steatosis on MWA performance. EPs were derived from Dixon-based FC maps and incorporated into a 3D liver model. Simulations were performed for two subjects using homogeneous liver models with FCs of 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30%, as well as voxel-wise patient-specific FC distributions reconstructed from Dixon imaging. Temperature changes, ablation volumes at various thermal thresholds, and power density were analyzed in tumor-adjacent and surrounding liver tissue. Increasing hepatic FC resulted in reduced microwave energy deposition, diminished temperature elevations, and minimal ablation volumes in the surrounding liver parenchyma. The reduction in ablation volume was more pronounced at lower temperature thresholds, indicating heightened sensitivity of peripheral hyperthermic regions to variations in FC-related EPs. Dixon-based patient-specific models exhibited intermediate ablation behaviors consistent with imaging-derived FC distributions. These results demonstrated that incorporating Dixon-derived, FC-dependent EPs heterogeneity can improve the physiological realism and accuracy of patient-specific MWA predictions, particularly in steatotic livers.