Analytical prediction of sub surface thermal history in translucent tissue phantoms during plasmonic photo thermotherapy

Abstract

Knowledge of thermal history in biological tissues during laser based hyperthermia is essential to achieve necrosis of tumour orcarcinoma cells. A semi analytical model to predict sub surface thermal history in translucent, soft, bio tissue mimics has been proposed. The model can accurately predict the spatio temporal temperature variations along depth and the anomalous thermal behaviour in such media, viz. occurrence of sub surface temperature peaks. Based on opto thermal properties, the augmented temperature and shift of the peak positions in case of gold nanostructure mediated tissue phantom hyperthermia can be predicted. Employing inverse approach, the absorbance coefficient of nano graphene infused tissue mimics is determined from the peak temperature and found to provide appreciably accurate predictions along depth. Furthermore, a simplistic, dimensionally consistent correlation to theoretically determine the position of the peak in such media is proposed and found to be consistent with experiments and computations. The model shows promise in predicting thermal history in optically active soft matter and deduction of therapeutic hyperthermia parameters, thereby providing a priori estimates for clinical trials.