Blood perfusion-based model for characterizing the temperature fluctuation in living tissues

A new conceptual perturbation model for characterizing the temperature fluctuation in living tissues was proposed based on the classical Pennes bioheat transfer equation. Closed-form analytical solutions to the new equation systems were obtained using the Green's function method. The quantitative relationship between the temperature fluctuation and the pulsative blood per-fusion, arterial blood temperature and metabolic heat generation in living tissues was thus revealed. As an illustration, the temperature fluctuation due to pulsative blood perfusion alone was particularly investigated. It was shown that a mathematically negligible perturbation on blood perfusion results in evident and observable temperature fluctuation. This study sets up a new theoretical foundation for better understanding the thermal fluctuation in living tissues. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.