Design and thermal modeling of a non-invasive probe for measuring perfusion by thermodiffusion

This research 1) explores the feasibility of developing a non-invasive probe to precisely quantify microcirculatory blood flow (tissue perfusion), in real time and in absolute units, and 2) presents designs and models of such a probe, along with an evaluation of various design-model combinations. Bowman et al. have developed an invasive thermodiffusion probe that measures tissue perfusion accurately, continuously, and in real time. This method employs a self-heated thermistor placed in perfused tissue. From a knowledge of the power required to heat the thermistor probe to a given temperature, perfusion can be calculated using an analytical or numerical model. Using Bowman's thermodiffusion probe (designed for invasive use) in a non-invasive manner, a perfusion study was performed. The data clearly show the promise of a non-invasive thermodiffusion perfusion probe (designed for non-invasive use), and the design of such a probe was pursued by adapting the invasive technology for a non-invasive probe. Because perfusion is not actually measured but calculated from measured quantities by a model of the probe and perfused tissue, the design of the non-invasive probe occurred hand-in-hand with the development of analytical models.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Charles, Steven Knight

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• H. Frederick Bowman.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/38275

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38275