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A piecewise function of resistivity of liver: determining parameters with finite element analysis of radiofrequency ablation

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Abstract

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a widely used thermal treatment for liver tumors. Knowledge about the resistivity of liver is a prerequisite for the predictability of producible thermo-necrosis with RFA. Most research to date has focused on performing specific experiments to determine the resistivity of a given liver. This work aims to determine the resistivity from the time course of impedance obtained in RFA. We assume that the liver resistivity obeys a piecewise function of temperature. We determine in this work the means and standard derivations of parameters in the resistivity function with finite element analysis of ex vivo bipolar RFA. We experimentally found the temperature at the electrode equal to 125.2 °C. This finding validates a parameter in the function relating to the temperature at which the resistivity starts to rise exponentially. We conclude that it is feasible and reliable to characterize the resistivity function of liver in using the time course of impedance from RFA. This work opens a pathway for the automatic determination of the patient specific resistivity of in vivo liver.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the grants awarded by the KU Leuven Molecular Small Animal Imaging Centre MoSAIC (KUL EF/05/08).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Applied Mechanics Group, Graduate Program in Engineering, Federal University of Pampa, Av. Tiarajú 810, Ibirapuitã, Alegrete, Rio Grande do Sul, 97546-550, Brazil

    Ricardo Possebon & Chong Wang

  2. Department of Radiology, Gasthuisberg University Hospital, Herestraat 49, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Yansheng Jiang, Stefaan Mulier, Yuanbo Feng & Yicheng Ni

  3. Department of Surgery, Leopold Park Clinic, CHIREC Cancer Institute, Froissartstraat 38, 1040, Brussels, Belgium

    Stefaan Mulier

  4. University of Zhe Jiang, Hang Zhou, China

    Feng Chen

  5. Department of Radiology, Theragnostic Laboratory, Department of Imaging & Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital Gasthuisberg, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Yicheng Ni

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  1. Ricardo Possebon
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  2. Yansheng Jiang
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  3. Stefaan Mulier
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  4. Chong Wang
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  5. Feng Chen
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  6. Yuanbo Feng
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  7. Yicheng Ni
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Correspondence to Yicheng Ni.

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Possebon, R., Jiang, Y., Mulier, S. et al. A piecewise function of resistivity of liver: determining parameters with finite element analysis of radiofrequency ablation. Med Biol Eng Comput 56, 385–394 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-017-1699-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-017-1699-6

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