Magnetic fluid hyperthermia simulations in evaluation of SAR calculation methods

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to employ magnetic fluid hyperthermia simulations in the precise computation of Specific Absorption Rate functions -SAR(T)-, and in the evaluation of the predictive capacity of different SAR calculation methods.

Methods: Magnetic fluid hyperthermia experiments were carried out using magnetite-based nanofluids. The respective SAR values were estimated through four different calculation methods including the initial slope method, the Box-Lucas method, the corrected slope method and the incremental analysis method (INCAM). A novel numerical model combining the heat transfer equations and the Navier-Stokes equations was developed to reproduce the experimental heating process. To address variations in heating efficiency with temperature, the expression of the power dissipation as a Gaussian function of temperature was introduced and the Levenberg-Marquardt optimization algorithm was employed to compute the function parameters and determine the function's effective branch within each measurement's temperature range. The power dissipation function was then reduced to the respective SAR function.

Results: The INCAM exhibited the lowest relative errors ranging between 0.62 and 15.03% with respect to the simulations. SAR(T) functions exhibited significant variations, up to 45%, within the MFH-relevant temperature range.

Conclusions: The examined calculation methods are not suitable to accurately quantify the heating efficiency of a magnetic fluid. Numerical models can be exploited to effectively compute SAR(T) and contribute to the development of robust hyperthermia treatment planning applications.

Keywords: Box-Lucas; COMSOL; Corrected slope method; ILP; Initial slope method; Magnetic fluid hyperthermia; Magnetic nanoparticles; SAR; Simulations; Specific absorption rate.