Electric Field Distribution Study of Hexagonal and Pentagonal Electrode Geometries | Chapter 18 | Recent Developments in Medicine and Medical Research Vol. 2

 The fact that over 9 million people died from cancer in 2018, with a further 10 million expected in 2020, demonstrates that present treatments are insufficient; there is an urgent and critical need for additional/alternative physical therapy. Electrochemotherapy, a type of electroporation-based chemotherapy, is becoming more popular. This entails delivering high-intensity, short-duration pulses to the tumour site, which increases biopotential across the cell plasma membrane's phospholipid bilayers and so opens up pores for increased uptake. The electrode geometry, size, material, and tissue treated all influence the intensity and distribution of the electric field.   The effect of different electrodes on the electric field intensity and distribution was explored in this study. Platinum and surgical steel needle array hexagonal and pentagonal electrodes were employed for this purpose. The electric field distribution, intensity, and contour were studied using ANSYS, an industry standard software that employs the finite element approach. The electric field intensity and distribution were measured in both healthy and malignant tissue utilising these varied electrode designs and materials for unipolar and bipolar voltages.   The results show that the electric field distribution is similar for both electrodes, in terms of magnitude and pattern, for both configurations and materials, which is desirable from a clinical standpoint. In the instance of tumour tissue, the electric field intensities for the hexagonal and pentagonal needle electrodes were 1280V/cm and 1180V/cm, respectively (which corresponded to the intended level of 1200V/cm). In the case of healthy tissues, they were 835V/cm and 843V/cm for these electrodes. In the case of bipotential and negative voltages, the values were also the same.

Author (S) Details 

Raja Prabu Ramachandran
B.S. Abdur Rahman University, Chennai 600048, India and Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management, Visakhapatnam-530045, India.

Vishveswaran Jothi
B.S. Abdur Rahman University, Chennai 600048, India.

Mohamed I. Neamathulla
B.S. Abdur Rahman University, Chennai 600048, India.

Sadasivam Pachamuthu
B.S. Abdur Rahman University, Chennai 600048, India.

Kavitha Sankaranarayanan
AU-KBC Research Centre, Anna University, Chennai, India.

Raji Sundararajan
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.

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