Boundary Element Solution of Electromagnetic and Bioheat Equations for the Simulation of SAR and Temperature Increase in Biological Tissues

This paper focuses on the estimation of the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) and temperature increase within an irradiated human body, starting from known values of the electric and magnetic fields around the body. The proposed approach, based on the Boundary Element Method (BEM) for the solution of the integrated electromagnetic/thermal problem, uses SAR values provided by the electromagnetic solution as input for the bioheat equation which includes the effects of the metabolic heat and of the blood flow. The validity of the BEM approach is proved in the analysis of a simplified human model by comparison with the results given by a different numerical method.

[1]  M. Chiampi,et al.  Accuracy of SAR Reconstruction in Human Phantoms From Surface Field Values , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics.

[2]  E Y K Ng,et al.  Boundary element method with bioheat equation for skin burn injury. , 2009, Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries.

[3]  A. Ahlbom Guidelines for limiting exposure to time-varying electric, magnetic, and electromagnetic fields (up to 300 GHz) , 1998 .

[4]  O. Fujiwara,et al.  FDTD computation of temperature rise in the human head for portable telephones , 1999 .

[5]  The boundary element electromagnetic–thermal analysis of human exposure to base station antennas radiation , 2004 .

[6]  P R Wainwright,et al.  Computational modelling of temperature rises in the eye in the near field of radiofrequency sources at 380, 900 and 1800 MHz , 2007, Physics in medicine and biology.

[7]  Vikass Monebhurrun Conservativeness of the SAM Phantom for the SAR Evaluation in the Child's Head , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics.

[8]  Nikolaos V. Kantartzis,et al.  A comparative study of the biological effects of various mobile phone and wireless LAN antennas , 2002 .

[9]  A. Hirata,et al.  Temperature rises in the human eye exposed to EM waves in the frequency range 0.6-6 GHz , 2000 .

[10]  A. Peratta,et al.  Boundary Element Modeling of the Realistic Human Body Exposed to Extremely-Low-Frequency (ELF) Electric Fields: Computational and Geometrical Aspects , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility.

[11]  Ewa Majchrzak,et al.  The modelling of heating a tissue subjected to external electromagnetic field. , 2008, Acta of bioengineering and biomechanics.

[12]  James C. Lin,et al.  SAR and temperature: Simulations and comparison to regulatory limits for MRI , 2007, Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI.

[13]  C. Vollaire,et al.  Optimization of 3-D SAR distribution in local RF hyperthermia , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics.

[14]  J. A. Ramírez,et al.  A Head Model for the Calculation of SAR and Temperature Rise Induced by Cellular Phones , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics.

[15]  V. De Santis,et al.  Prediction of Temperature Increase in Human Eyes Due to RF Sources , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility.

[16]  T. Onishi,et al.  Novel Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) Estimation Method Based on 2-D Scanned Electric Fields , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility.

[17]  Mario Chiampi,et al.  A boundary element approach to relate surface fields with the specific absorption rate (SAR) induced in 3-D human phantoms , 2011 .