Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst. / Härtill 6 uppsatser.

Recently, hyperthermia has been investigated as an alternate therapy for the treatment of tumors. The present project explored the feasibility of preferential hyperthermia as a method of treating deep seated tumors. The overall goal of this research was to determine theoretically if preferential heating could be used to attain the desired thermal dose (DTD) for a two cm diameter tumor. The simulations in this work show that, when using a single silicon carbide insert, the model cannot provide enough energy for an entire 2 cm diameter tumor to receive the DTD. However, when using an enhanced design model with multiple (4) silicon carbide inserts, the DTD could be attained in a tumor up to 3.5 cm in diameter. This study involved using the commercially available software package ANSYS 7.0 program to model a spherical 2 cm tumor, assuming the tumor is located in deep tissue with a constant perfusion rate and no major blood vessels nearby. This tumor was placed in the center of a cube of healthy tissue. To achieve the preferential heating of the tumor, a silicon carbide insert was placed in the center of the tumor and microwave energy was applied to the insert (in the form of volumetric heating). The thermal modeling of this system was based on the Pennes Bioheat equation with a maximum temperature limitation of of 80 ºC. The Thermal Dose Analyzer software program was used to evaluate the results of the thermal simulations (from ANSYS) to determine if the DTD had been attained. Additional enhanced design models were also examined. These models include 2 cm and 4 cm tumors with four silicon carbide inserts symmetrically placed about the tumor and a 4 cm tumor model using a single silicon carbide insert with antennae attached to the insert to increase energy distribution to the tumor. The simulations show that only the enhanced design cases with four silicon carbide inserts can achieve the DTD for an entire 2 cm tumor. / Master of Science

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Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst. / Härtill 6 uppsatser.

Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a rare but severe reaction that can occur in the operating room. Due to the low volume of these reactions, nurses are often unprepared to handle the event; however, not recognizing the event and intervening can lead to the death of the patient. This is a practice problem that can be addressed through a nursing staff education simulation training program. The purpose for this doctoral project was to develop a multidisciplinary MH simulation program that could improve nursing knowledge when caring for patients experiencing an MH crisis in the operating room. The practice-focused question for this project asked whether MH multidisciplinary simulation education improves the knowledge of nurses in the operating room setting. Utilizing Kolb’s theory of experiential learning, nurses were developed through the four stages of learning. Sources of evidence for this project included a review of the literature. Data were also collected pre- and post-intervention on the reliability of simulation training to improve operating room nurses’ knowledge of caring for the patient experiencing an MH crisis. Descriptive statistics via percent difference evaluated pre- and post-test evaluations. Results revealed a 16.4% increase knowledge scores from pretest to posttest following participation in the MH simulation. Improving patient outcomes creates significant social impact by developing community confidence in the surgical care provided by local hospitals.

Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (IONPs) are a multifunctional nano-material that allows for MRI imaging, intravenous-controlled drug movement, and hyperthermia. The objective of this study is to optimize and control IONP hyperthermia and cope with aggregation using Finite Element (FE) Modeling and statistical physics. The FE model is first used to demonstrate the advantages of changing IONP heat dissipation in time, which can increase energy density inside tumors while decreasing the energy delivered in healthy tissue. Here, this is defined as target-specificity. Second, this model is used to demonstrate that time-dependent IONP heat dissipation allows for control of temperature distributions inside the body. Third, the FE model is used to solve the temperature distributions resulting from capillary diffusion of IONPs. This study shows that capillary diffusion combined with direct injection results in improved homogeneity of temperature distributions. Fourth, using a square-difference scheme, non-time domain parameters including the number of IONP injections, the location of injections, IONP distribution width, and heating intensity are optimized to improve target-specificity and temperature homogeneity. Collectively, this study contributes to hyperthermia by optimizing time- and non-time- domain parameters, controlling hyperthermia, and quantifying aggregation with a new theory. / Master of Science

Increasing demands for hyperthermia (HT) as an adjuvant therapy is caused from the contributions of thermal therapy to the traditional treatments. Latest improvements in hyperthermia make it popular among thermal therapies to cure cancer in any organ or body parts. HT takes advantage of EM radiation inside the tumor that provides temperature and blood perfusion increment that helps radiation therapy and chemotherapy to be more efficient. Therefore, some advantages makes HT preferred when compared to similar treatments. Being noninvasive and painless with an efficient cooling system, and helping to shorten the application period and session number of conventional treatments are most important advantages of HT. However, existing HT systems require high input power per elements on the applicators and long application time. Designing conformal and patient specific applicators with mild application can solve this issue. Moreover, mild HT application can make cancer treatment cheaper and more accessible. The main goal in this study is to design conformal HT applicators through optimization for liver and provide a patient specific and cost-effective local hyperthermia treatment that can be widely used in local clinical cancer treatment centers without expensive applicators.

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