Abstract
Thermal therapy is emerging as an effective treatment option for benign localized tumors. However, lack of reliable intraoperative monitoring techniques of the thermal lesion impedes more widespread application of thermal therapy in clinical settings. In order to address this challenge, a thermometry technique using temperature dependent fluorescence of quantum dots was proposed and its feasibility was also demonstrated with an in vitro cell system. In the present study, light-tissue interaction relevant to applying this quantum dot (QD) thermometry to a tissue system was characterized both experimentally and computationally. In the experiments, QD fluorescence was quantified through tissue phantom while varying QD temperature and phantom thickness. The results showed that QD fluorescence became diffused due to light-tissue interaction, but the QD fluorescence was still correlated to the temperature at any given phantom thickness studied. In the computations, an inverse solution algorithm was developed to estimate the QD fluorescence underneath the tissue phantom from the fluorescence through the phantom. This algorithm is to inversely solve the diffusion approximation of the radiative transfer equation. The developed algorithm was verified using the experimental results. In addition, the effects of relevant optical and thermal parameters on the accuracy of the inverse solution were characterized. The results suggest that the developed algorithm is capable of estimating the QD fluorescence considering light-tissue interaction in the range of tissue phantom thickness studied. The results were further discussed for implications to the application of QD thermometry in vivo.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Article number | 045704 |
Journal | Measurement Science and Technology |
Volume | 23 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 2012 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- cancer treatment
- image guidance
- intraoperative imaging
- quantum dot thermometry
- temperature
- thermal therapy
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Instrumentation
- Engineering (miscellaneous)
- Applied Mathematics