Consequence of RBC Deformability On Heat Sink Effect of Blood in a Three Dimensional Bifurcated Vessel

Abstract

Background and Objective: The objective of this study is to analyze the effect of RBC shape and deformation on blood heat transfer of a tumor patient suffering from blood disorders when being treated with hyperthermia procedure.

Methods: Euler-Euler multiphase method along with granular model is used in this study to simulate blood flow in a bifurcated vessel. Kinetic theory is used to include particle nature of RBCs during blood flow in the current model.

Results: An increase of 0.25 K in blood temperature is noticed during a cardiac cycle for diseased patient compared to normal patient. These results indicate that blood disorders can alter the heat sink effect and blood heat transfer in a bifurcated vessel, which also affects the efficacy and efficiency of tumor treatment procedure. Hence, blood disorder (where the morphology of RBC is altered) of a patient needs to be taken into consideration when thermal therapy is being used for tumor treatment.

Conclusion: Both spatial and transient Nusselt number of a normal patient is higher compared to a blood diseased patient which indicates a higher heat transfer in case of normal patient compared to the later, when treated with similar ablation procedure. So for a tumor patient suffering from blood disorder, modification in hyperthermia procedure needs to be done compared to a normal patient for complete infected cell necrosis and minimal destruction of healthy tissues.