Theoretical analysis of the large blood vessel influence on the local tissue temperature decay after pulse heating

The influence of a large blood vessel (larger than 500 microns in diameter) on the local tissue temperature decay following a point source heating pulse was determined numerically using a sink/source method. It was assumed that the vessel was large enough so that the temperature of blood flowing within it remained essentially constant and was unaffected by any local tissue temperature transients. After the insertion of a point source heating pulse, the vessel influence on the local tissue transient temperature field was estimated by representing the vessel as a set of negative fictitious instantaneous heat sources with strength just sufficient to maintain the vessel at a constant temperature. In the surrounding tissue, the Pennes' tissue heat transfer equation was used to describe the temperature field. Computations have been performed for a range of vessel sizes, probe-vessel spacings and local blood perfusion rates. It was found that the influence of a large vessel on the local tissue temperature decay is more sensitive to its size and location rather than to the local blood perfusion rate. For a heating pulse of 3s duration and 5mW of power, there is a critical probe-vessel center distance 7R (R, vessel radius) beyond which the larger vessel influence on tissue temperature at the probe can be neglected.