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Articles

Study of enhanced radiofrequency heating by pre-freezing tissue

, , , , , , & show all
Pages 79-89 | Received 21 Aug 2017, Accepted 12 May 2018, Published online: 04 Jun 2018
 

Abstract

In our previous animal model study, we found that radiofrequency (RF) ablation of pre-frozen tumor resulted in improved therapeutic effects. To understand the underlying mechanisms and optimize the treatment protocol, the RF heating pattern in pre-frozen tissue was studied in this paper. Both ex vivo and in vivo experiments were conducted to compare the temperature profiles of RF heating with or without pre-freezing. Results showed that the heating rate of in vivo tissues was significantly higher with pre-freezing. However, little difference was observed in the heating rate of ex vivo tissues with or without pre-freezing. In the histopathologic analysis of in vivo tissues, both a larger ablation area and a wider transitional zone were found in the tissue with pre-freezing. To investigate the cause for the enhancement in RF heating, the parameters affecting the tissue temperature rise were studied. It was found that the electrical conductivity of in vivo tissue with pre-freezing was much higher at low frequencies, but little difference was found at the 460 kHz frequency commonly used in clinical applications. A finite element model for RF heating was developed and validated to fit the thermal conductivity of in vivo tissue including effects of pre-freezing and the associated blood perfusion rate. Results showed that the enhancement of the heating rate was primarily attributed to the decreased blood perfusion rate in the tissue with vascular damage caused by pre-freezing. The ablation volume was increased by 104% due to the reduced heat dissipation.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Prof. J. Brian Fowlkes for his assistance in improving the English of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 51476101, 51521005), Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (16441903100), and Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2016YFC0106200).