Determination of perfusion field during local hyperthermia with the aid of finite element thermal models

Two-dimensional transient thermal models of human thighs undergoing microwave diathermy are developed with the aid of experimental data to shed light on the blood flow response occurring during local hyperthermia in muscle. The experimental data were taken from tests on six human subjects treated with a 915-Mz, direct-contact microwave diathermy device which incorporated a system for simultaneously cooling the skin surface with a cold air stream. The numerically calculated perfusion fields were determined by systematically varying a model's blood flow response to the temperature stimulus until good agreement between the experimental and model temperature fields were achieved. The model blood flow values were then checked against those measured in the human experiments via xenon 133 washout and good agreement here was also found. The future use of models of this type in clinical diagnosis and hyperthermic treatment is proposed.