Clinical application of thermal isoeffect dose

Abstract

Clinically, there is strong rationale for developing a method which will provide a scientific basis for comparing the efficacy of one hypothermia treatment with another. In order to accomplish this goal, methods must first be developed which will allow the clinician to know the three-dimensional temperature distribution in heated tissue. In this paper, examples of how this goal can be achieved are presented. Techniques for compensating for various modifiers of hyperthermia effectiveness are proposed. The limitations and advantages of these approaches are described and directions for future research are discussed.

Key Words:

• thermal isoeffect dose
• heat transfer modelling
• finite elements
• thermometry.