A STUDY OF THE HEATING OF PLAQUE DURING AN INTRAVASCULAR PROCEDURE

In invasive techniques such as laser angioplasty and intravascular ult rasonography, there is a source of heat inside the vascular system tha t is being released/dissipated by the inserted device. In this article , the transfer of heat from this source to the plaque deposited on the walls of the artery has been studied numerically using two different models. The models consider the transient conduction and the absorptio n of heat through the plaque. The variation of thermophysical properti es is also included in the analysis. It was found that the temperature distribution depends significantly on the type of plaque and the powe r level.