Investigation on temperature-dependent changes of tissue thermal properties on microwave ablation treatments

Microwave thermal ablation treatments induce coagulation necrosis of diseased tissue through the absorption of an electromagnetic field at microwave frequencies. In particular, the electromagnetic field absorbed by the tissue induces a temperature increase that, in turn, produces an almost instantaneous cell death. The electromagnetic field is radiated by a minimally invasive antenna located in the centre of the diseased area. Temperatures close to 60°C are needed to induce thermal ablation, so that very high temperatures values (up to 100°C or higher) can be achieved close to the radiating antenna. To develop reliable interventional protocols, numerical tools able to correctly predict the temperature increase are needed. In this work, values recently measured of the thermal conductivity as a function of the temperature have been introduced into the numerical model to evaluate their influence on the calculated data.