Numerical study to establish relationship between coagulation volume and target tip temperature during temperature-controlled radiofrequency ablation

The present study aims at proposing a relationship between the coagulation volume and the target tip temperature in different tissues (viz., liver, lung, kidney, and breast) during temperature-controlled radiofrequency ablation (RFA). A 20-min RFA has been modelled using commercially available monopolar multi-tine electrode subjected to different target tip temperatures that varied from 70°C to 100°C with an increment of 10°C. A closed-loop feedback proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller has been employed within the finite element model to perform temperature-controlled RFA. The coagulation necrosis has been attained by solving the coupled electric field distribution, the Pennes bioheat and the first-order Arrhenius rate equations within the three-dimensional finite element model of different tissues. The computational study considers temperature-dependent electrical and thermal conductivities along with the non-linear piecewise model of blood perfusion. The comparison between coagulation volume obtained from the numerical and in vitro experimental studies has been done to evaluate the aptness of the numerical models. In the present study, a total of 20 numerical simulations have been performed along with 12 experiments on tissue-mimicking phantom gel using RFA device. The study revealed a strong dependence of the coagulation volume on the pre-set target tip temperature and ablation time during RFA application. Further, the effect of target tip temperature on the applied input voltage has been studied in different tissues. Based on the results attained from the numerical study, statistical correlations between the coagulation volume and treatment time have been developed at different target tip temperatures for each tissue.