title: Modelling the impact of blood flow on the temperature distribution in the human eye and the orbit: fixed heat transfer coefficients versus the Pennes bioheat model versus discrete blood vessels.
abstract: Prediction of the temperature distribution in the eye depends on how the impact of the blood flow is taken into account. Three methods will be compared: a simplified eye anatomy that applies a single heat transfer coefficient to describe all heat transport mechanisms between the sclera and the body core, a detailed eye anatomy in which the blood flow is accounted for either by the bioheat approach, or by including the discrete vasculature in the eye and the orbit. The comparison is done both for rabbit and human anatomies, normo-thermally and when exposed to homogeneous power densities. The first simplified model predicts much higher temperatures than the latter two. It was shown that the eye is very hard to heat when taking physiological perfusion correctly into account. It was concluded that the heat transfer coefficient describing the heat transport from the sclera to the body core reported in the literature for the first simplified model is too low. The bioheat approach is appropriate for a first-order approximation of the temperature distribution in the eye when exposed to a homogeneous power density, but the discrete vasculature down to 0.2 mm in diameter needs to be taken into account when the heterogeneity of the temperature distribution at a mm scale is of interest.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiotherapy, University Medical Center Utrecht, Heidelberglaan 100, 3584 CX Utrecht, The Netherlands. v.flyckt@umcutrecht.nl
authors.forename: V M M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Flyckt
authors.forename: B W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Raaymakers
authors.forename: J J W
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Lagendijk
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001158:Arteries / Q000473:pathology; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000473:pathology*; D001831:Body Temperature; D005123:Eye / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011817:Rabbits; D013696:Temperature; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed