A study of abaltion zone of irreversible electroporation in a heterogeneous potato model

Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a novel tumor ablation technology that applies an external pulsed electric field to generate nanoscale irreversible pores in the tumor cell membranes, thereby destroying cellular homeostasis and inducing apoptosis. It has some unique advantages over thermal ablations, including no sensitive to the ‘heat-sink’ effect of blood vessels and preserving surrounding vital structures. However, there is still a risk of cancer recurrence with IRE, especially with heterogeneous tissues. For heterogeneous tissues, the existence of structures with different conductivities makes it difficult to control the ablation outcomes of IRE. In this study, we used finite element simulation combined with experiments to observe the influence of heterogeneous implants on the shape of the ablation zone in a plant model. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was used to extract the impedance data and characterize the relationship between relevant electrical parameters and ablation area. We found that the pulsed electric field would be distorted by the heterogeneous implant with high electrical conductivity, resulting in the irregular shape of the ablation zone, and the relative change value of the extracellular fluid equivalent resistance extracted from impedance spectrum was linearly related to the ablation zone. In conclusion, the ablation zone could be predicted by the proposed method in the study with an acceptable accuracy.