title: Temperature simulations in tissue with a realistic computer generated vessel network.
abstract: The practical use of a discrete vessel thermal model for hyperthermia treatment planning requires a number of choices with respect to the unknown part of the patient's vasculature. This work presents a study of the thermal effects of blood flow in a simple tissue geometry with a detailed artificial vessel network. The simulations presented here demonstrate that an incomplete discrete description of the detailed network results in a better prediction of the temperature distribution than is obtained using the conventional bio-heatsink equation. Therefore, efforts to obtain information on the positions of the large vessels in an individual hyperthermia patient will be rewarded with a more accurate prediction of the temperature distribution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiotherapy, University Hospital Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Van Leeuwen
authors.forename: A N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Kotte
authors.forename: B W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Raaymakers
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Lagendijk
mesh_terms: D001158:Arteries / Q000502:physiology; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D008954:Models, Biological; D013696:Temperature; D014680:Veins / Q000502:physiology