Monitoring of breast tissue thermo-ablation by means of impedance measurements

A usefulness of a developed probe combining power delivery to ablated breast tumour and simultaneous impedance measurements is discussed in the paper. It consists of a cylindrical electrode used for applying ablation current and four rings electrodes. They are located, in pairs, at both ends of the ablation electrode. The probe properties were examined using a simulation studies – Laplace and bio-heat equations were solved. An associated distribution of power absorbed by tissue was calculated. Temperature dependence of tissues' conductivity was assumed. This dependence involved an iteration procedure for solving the considered problem. The four-electrode probe enabled monitoring the insertion and the ablation process.