Design and simulation of the electromagnetic heating of a biological tissue

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present the design and the numerical calculation of the electromagnetic heating system for the ablation therapy. Hence, the heating of the tumor cells must be processed very carefully to achieve a localized coagulative necrosis and to avoid too high temperatures inside the tissue.Design/methodology/approachThe non-invasive method of the ablation therapy is implemented due to the inductive power transmission between the generator and implant. The ferromagnetic implant has a small size and can be placed intravenously into tumor cells. High-frequency driving currents are necessary to obtain high induced eddy currents within the ferromagnetic implant.FindingsFinite element analysis has been used for the design and numerical calculation of the electromagnetic heating system. The electromagnetic analysis is done in the time domain due to the nonlinearity of the ferromagnetic implant. Magnetic fields are computed based on a magnetic vector potential formulation. The thermal analysis is done in the time domain as well. The temperature computation in biological tissue is based on a heat balance equation.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper is focused on the design and simulation of the inductive system for the ablation therapy.Practical implicationsThe designed system can be practically implemented. It can be used for the clinical study of the immune response by the thermal ablation therapy.Originality/valueThe common method of thermal ablation is combined with an inductive power transmission. It enables a repetitive application of this method to study the immune response.