Narrow Results

The severe ambient temperature always disrupts the normal thermoregulatory system of the human body. The decrease in core temperature leads to hypothermia and the development of cold injuries takes place at the exposed shells of the human body. The intensity of the cold exposure and its duration leads to various degrees of frostbites and resulting cell damage and fluid passage from the necrotic regions. In this paper, variational finite element has been employed to estimate the thermal damage due to severe cold conditions. The formulation of the model is based on Pennes’ bioheat equation and mass diffusion equation. Moreover, the fluid passage from the cold injuries at the peripheral tissues of the human body with respect to extreme cold conditions has been analyzed in relation with other parameters.

The physiological processes taking place in human body are disturbed by the abnormal changes in climate. The changes in environmental temperature are not effective only to compete with thermal stability of the system but also in the development of thermal injuries at the skin surfaces. Therefore, it is of great importance to estimate the temperature distribution and thermal damage in human peripherals at extreme temperatures. In this paper, the epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous tissue were modeled as uniform elements with distinct thermal properties. The bioheat equation with appropriate boundary conditions has been used to estimate the temperature profiles at the nodal points of the skin and subcutaneous tissue with variable ambient heat and metabolic activities. The model has been solved by variational finite element method and the results of the changes in temperature distribution of the body and the damage to the exposed living tissues has been interpreted graphically in relation with various atmospheric temperatures and rate of metabolic heat generation. By involving the metabolic heat generation term in bioheat equation and using the finite element approach the results obtained in this paper are more reasonable and appropriate than the results developed by Moritz and Henriques, Diller and Hayes, and Jiang et al.

As a starting point for developing analytical models of predicting skin temperature and damage extent into multi-layer ones, a double-layer model consisting of two distinguished and attached layers is considered: a tissue layer containing blood vessels and a tissue layer containing no blood vessels. The Pennes model is applied for the tissue containing blood vessels. Applying the Laplace transform, then the inversion theorem for Laplace transforms and the Cauchy residue theorem, the desired skin temperature function is obtained. Applying the temperature function in a damage model, the severity and degree of damage can be determined. Validating this model against previous analytical, numerical and experimental data, the error rate is determined.

Presented is the analytical solution of Pennes bio-heat equation, under localized moving heat source. The thermal behavior of one-dimensional (1D) nonhomogeneous layer of biological tissue is considered with blood perfusion term and modeled under the effect of concentric moving line heat source. The procedure of the solution is Eigen function expansion. The temperature profiles are calculated for three tissues of liver, kidney, and skin. Behavior of temperature profiles are studied parametrically due to the different moving speeds. The analytical solution can be used as a verification branch for studying the practical operations such as scanning laser treatment and other numerical solutions.

Modeling and understanding heat transport and temperature variations within biological tissues and body organs are key issues in medical thermal therapeutic applications, such as hyperthermia cancer treatment. In this analysis, the bio-heat equation has been studied in the context of a new formulation using Caputo–Fabrizio (CF) heat transport law. The heat equation for this problem involving the Three-Phase (3P)-lag model under two-temperature theory. The Laplace transform technique is implemented to solve the governing equations. The influences of the CF order, the two-temperature parameter and moving heat source velocity on the temperature of skin tissues have been precisely investigated. The numerical inversion of the Laplace transform is carried out using the Zakian method. The numerical outcomes of conductive temperature and thermodynamic temperatures have been represented graphically. Excellent predictive capability is demonstrated for identification of appropriate procedure to select different CF order to reach effective heating in hyperthermia treatment. Significant effect of thermal therapy is reported due to the effect of CF order, the two-temperature parameter and the velocity of moving heat source as well.

This paper presents an application of finite element method to study the thermoregulatory behavior of three layers of human dermal parts with varying properties. The investigation of temperature distributions in epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous tissue together with Crank–Nicholson scheme at various atmospheric conditions was carried out. The finite element method has been applied to obtain the numerical solution of governing differential equation for one-dimensional unsteady state bioheat equation using suitable values of parameters that affect the heat transfer in human body. The outer skin is assumed to be exposed to cold atmospheric temperatures and the loss of heat due to convection, radiation and evaporation has been taken into consideration. The important parameters like blood mass flow rate, metabolic heat generation rate and thermal conductivity are taken heterogeneous in each layer according to their distinct physiological and biochemical activities. The temperature profiles at various nodal points of the skin and in vivo tissues have been calculated with respect to the severe cold ambient temperatures. The conditions under which hypothermia, non-freezing and freezing injuries develop were illustrated in the graphs.

This paper develops a model to identify the effects of thermal stress on temperature distribution and damage in human dermal regions. The design and selection of the model takes into account many factors effecting the temperature distribution of skin, e.g., thermal conductance, perfusion, metabolic heat generation and thermal protective capabilities of the skin. The transient temperature distribution within the region is simulated using a two-dimensional finite element model of the Pennes’ bioheat equation. The relationship between temperature and time is integrated to view the damage caused to human skin by using Henriques’ model Henriques, F. C., Arch. Pathol.43 (1947) 489–502]. The Henriques’ damage model is found to be more desirable for use in predicting the threshold of thermal damage. This work can be helpful in both emergency medicines as well as to plastic surgeon in deciding upon a course of action for the treatment of different burn injuries.

This review focuses both on the basic formulations of bioheat equation in the living tissue and on the determination of thermal dose during thermal therapy. The temperature distributions inside the heated tissues, generally controlled by heating modalities, are obtained by solving the bioheat transfer equation. However, the major criticism for the Pennes' model focused on the assumption that the heat transfer by blood flow occurs in a non-directional, heat sink- or source-like term. Several bioheat transfer models have been introduced to compare their convective and perfusive effects in vascular tissues. The present review also elucidates thermal dose equivalence that represents the extent of thermal damage or destruction of tissue in the clinical treatment of tumor with local hyperthermia. In addition, this study uses the porous medium concept to describe the heat transfer in the living tissue with the directional effect of blood flow, and the polynomial expression of thermal dose in terms of the curve fitting of the experimental isosurvival curve data by Dewey et al. Results show that the values of factor R is a function of the heating temperature instead of the two different constants suggested by Sapareto and Dewey.