Abstract
Photothermal therapy using a near-infrared laser is a promising noninvasive treatment protocol for metastatic lymph nodes in breast, head, and neck cancers. From a thermal engineering perspective, the key to this therapy is accurately predicting the temperature distribution in the tissue due to laser irradiation. In this study, we focused on quantitatively modeling the scattering coefficient (σs), which changes with heating and significantly impacts the temperature distribution. First, we experimentally determined the change in σs due to heating using biological tissue and attempted to represent σs as a function of thermal damage factor which is based on the Arrhenius equation. Next, this function was incorporated into the radiative transfer equation to perform simulations. The results demonstrated significant agreement with the experimental data compared to those with constant σs. The root mean square error for the simulations with dynamic σs was approximately 2.0 (°C), which was half that of the simulations with constant σs. Although laser scattering in vivo is a complex phenomenon, the method proposed in this study is expected to offer an approach for predicting temperatures and determining appropriate laser power and irradiation time to prevent overheating or underheating in photothermal therapy.
Published Version
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