Browsing by Author "Rubinsky, Boris"
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- Heat transfer model to characterize the focal cooling necessary to suppress spontaneous epileptiform activityGuerra, Reynaldo G.; Davalos, Rafael V.; Garcia, Paulo A.; Rubinsky, Boris; Berger, Mitchel (SPIE, 2005-04-14)Epilepsy is characterized by paroxysmal transient disturbances of the electrical activity of the brain. Symptoms are manifested as impairment of motor, sensory, or psychic function with or without loss of consciousness or convulsive seizures. This paper presents an initial post-operative heat transfer analysis of surgery performed on a 41 year-old man with medically intractable Epilepsy. The surgery involved tumor removal and the resection of adjacent epileptogenic tissue. Electrocorticography was performed before resection. Cold saline was applied to the resulting interictal spike foci resulting in transient, complete cessation of spiking. A transient one dimensional semi-infinite finite element model of the surface of the brain was developed to simulate the surgery. An approximate temperature distribution of the perfused brain was developed by applying the bioheat equation. The model quantifies the surface heat flux reached in achieving seizure cessation to within an order of magnitude. Rat models have previously shown that the brain surface temperature range to rapidly terminate epileptogenic activity is 20-24°C. The developed model predicts that a constant heat flux of approximately -13,000W/m², applied at the surface of the human brain, would achieve a surface temperature in this range in approximately 3 seconds. A parametric study was subsequently performed to characterize the effects of brain metabolism and brain blood perfusion as a function of the determined heat flux. The results of these findings can be used as a first approximation in defining the specifications of a cooling device to suppress seizures in human models.
- Tumor Ablation with Irreversible ElectroporationAl-Sakere, Bassim; Andre, Franck; Bernat, Claire; Connault, Elisabeth; Opolon, Paule; Davalos, Rafael V.; Rubinsky, Boris; Mir, Lluis M. (PLOS, 2007-11-07)We report the first successful use of irreversible electroporation for the minimally invasive treatment of aggressive cutaneous tumors implanted in mice. Irreversible electroporation is a newly developed non-thermal tissue ablation technique in which certain short duration electrical fields are used to permanently permeabilize the cell membrane, presumably through the formation of nanoscale defects in the cell membrane. Mathematical models of the electrical and thermal fields that develop during the application of the pulses were used to design an efficient treatment protocol with minimal heating of the tissue. Tumor regression was confirmed by histological studies which also revealed that it occurred as a direct result of irreversible cell membrane permeabilization. Parametric studies show that the successful outcome of the procedure is related to the applied electric field strength, the total pulse duration as well as the temporal mode of delivery of the pulses. Our best results were obtained using plate electrodes to deliver across the tumor 80 pulses of 100 µs at 0.3 Hz with an electrical field magnitude of 2500 V/cm. These conditions induced complete regression in 12 out of 13 treated tumors, (92%), in the absence of tissue heating. Irreversible electroporation is thus a new effective modality for non-thermal tumor ablation.