A coupled dual reciprocity BEM/genetic algorithm for identification of blood perfusion parameters

The purpose of this paper is to present an inverse analysis procedure based on a coupled numerical formulation through which the coefficients describing non‐linear thermal properties of blood perfusion may be identified.

The coupled numerical technique involves a combination of the dual reciprocity boundary element method (DRBEM) and a genetic algorithm (GA) for the solution of the Pennes bioheat equation. Both linear and quadratic temperature‐dependent variations are considered for the blood perfusion.

The proposed DRBEM formulation requires no internal discretisation and, in this case, no internal nodes either, apart from those defining the interface tissue/tumour. It is seen that the skin temperature variation changes as the blood perfusion increases, and in certain cases flat or nearly flat curves are produced. The proposed algorithm has difficulty to identify the perfusion parameters in these cases, although a more advanced genetic algorithm may provide improved results.

The coupled technique allows accurate inverse solutions of the Pennes bioheat equation for quantitative diagnostics on the physiological conditions of biological bodies and for optimisation of hyperthermia for cancer therapy.

The proposed technique can be used to guide hyperthermia cancer treatment, which normally involves heating tissue to 42‐43°C. When heated up to this range of temperatures, the blood flow in normal tissues, e.g. skin and muscle, increases significantly, while blood flow in the tumour zone decreases. Therefore, the consideration of temperature‐dependent blood perfusion in this case is not only essential for the correct modelling of the problem, but also should provide larger skin temperature variations, making the identification problem easier.