Temperature profiling of ex-vivo organs during ferromagnetic nanoparticles-enhanced radiofrequency ablation by fiber Bragg grating arrays

In this paper, we present real-time profiles of temperature during a ferromagnetic nanoparticles (NPs)enhanced radiofrequency ablation (RFA). A minimally invasive RFA setup has been prepared and applied ex vivo on a liver phantom; NPs (with concentration of 5 mg/mL) have been synthetized and injected within the tissue prior to perform the ablation, in order to facilitate the heat distribution to the peripheral sides of the ablated tissue. Temperature detection has been realized in situ with a network of 15 fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors in order to highlight the impact of the NPs on the RFA mechanism. Obtained temperature profiles and thermal maps confirm that nanoparticles injection ensures better heat penetration than in case of pristine RFA procedure. The results show that adding NPs solution leads to extending the successfully ablated area achieving a double-sized lesion