Evaluation of human brain hyperthermia using exergy balance equation.

Abstract

Hyperthermia is caused by disturbance in the thermoregulatory system of the human body and requires emergency treatment to prevent disability or possible mortality. To design any therapeutic device for hyperthermia, an exhaustive effort is required to establish the extremities of such thermal traumas. In this context, the authors have incorporated the human-body exergy-balance equation to compute the hyperthermia thresholds. This is a pioneer attempt to model hyperthermia states. An induced-hyperthermia technique is used to evaluate the extremities of metabolic heat generation and other dependent parameters. Moreover, a case study is also presented to calculate the parameters of prime importance i.e. exergy consumption (EC) and entropy generation rate (δSg) to provide the body's accumulative and exhaustive thermal energy maxima, respectively. Furthermore, the thresholds have been evaluated and simulated by the varying body and/or environmental conditions. The resulting states have been analysed to setup critical ranges to provide the guidelines for rehabilitation therapy. A thermal manikin has also been developed, mimicking the blood circulation in humans, to further substantiate the use of an exergy-based approach. The results indicate that the exergy-based approach is well suited to model hyperthermia at pathophysiological boundaries, contrary to existing approaches which predominantly are limited to the physiological domain.