Abstract
Plasma Medicine tools exploit the therapeutic effects of the exposure of living matter to plasma produced at atmospheric pressure. Since these plasmas are usually characterized by a non-thermal equilibrium (highly energetic electrons, low temperature ions), thermal effects on the substrate are usually considered negligible. Conversely, reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS), UV radiation and metastables are thought to play a major role. In this contribution, we compare the presence of thermal effects in different operational regimes (corresponding to different power levels) of the Plasma Coagulation Controller (PCC), a plasma source specifically designed for accelerating blood coagulation. In particular, we analyze the application of PCC on human blood samples (in vitro) and male Wistar rats tissues (in vivo). Histological analysis points out, for the highest applied power regime, the onset of detrimental thermal effects such as red cell lysis in blood samples and tissues damages in in-vivo experiments. Calorimetric bench tests performed on metallic targets show that the current coupled by the plasma on the substrate induces most of measured thermal loads through a resistive coupling. Furthermore, the distance between the PCC nozzle and the target is found to strongly affect the total power.
Highlights
The basic idea of plasma medicine is to create a therapeutic effect based on a chemical rather than a thermal interaction with the living substrate
6000 at low intensity were sufficient to induce platelet aggregation and fibrin polymerization (Figure 2B) and the percentage of aggregation detected was proportional to the treatment intensity (Figure 2C,D)
Despite the remarkable result observed for the blood coagulation, some concerning results appeared with the increase of intensity; after 6000 at Standard intensity (STD) conditions, red cell lysis begins (Figure 2C) and rapidly increase with longer treatments
Summary
The basic idea of plasma medicine is to create a therapeutic effect based on a chemical rather than a thermal interaction with the living substrate. Plasma medicine tools, through different schemes [1,2], produce a cold plasma in which the ion branch is kept at room temperature and the temperature increase of the target due to the plasma action is rather small. Such a cold plasma produces, interacting with the air, reactive nitrogen and oxygen species (RONS) which, together with electrons, electric field, UV radiation and metastable species, are considered the main factors responsible for the therapeutic action on biological tissues [3,4,5].
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