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Article
Publication date: 14 November 2008

Bruno Bisceglia, Assunta De Vita and Maurizio Sarti

A complete analysis for illustrating the various factors responsible for electrical stimulation can provide insight about some interaction effects relationship. The paper aims to…

340

Abstract

Purpose

A complete analysis for illustrating the various factors responsible for electrical stimulation can provide insight about some interaction effects relationship. The paper aims to evaluate the electric field and current density distributions inside the various tissues of two simplified models of arm and spine, when a external electric signal is applied using external electrodes in contact with the skin.

Design/methodology/approach

Electrical stimulation is a widely used clinical method in which fracture non‐unions are treated with low‐level electric fields and currents in order to stimulate fracture repair. The physical methods for bone growth stimulation discussed in this paper is referred to technique with capacitively coupled electric fields (CCEF) at the fracture site.

Findings

A series of experiments demonstrated that bone is piezoelectric, electro stimulation is often used to promote and expedite healing. The results of numeric simulation improve the understanding of healing mechanism and bone rebuilding.

Originality/value

Electric and magnetic fields can influence biological functions. The algorithm should be useful in calculating the response of biological materials subject to excitation including modelling and electrical stimulation.

Details

COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, vol. 27 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

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Article
Publication date: 6 July 2012

Anna Pia Pastore, Bruno Bisceglia, Roberto De Leo and Nicola Diaferia

Many objects made up of wood, as well as paper and carpets with artistic or cultural value, are seriously damaged by various infesting microorganisms and often such damage is…

106

Abstract

Purpose

Many objects made up of wood, as well as paper and carpets with artistic or cultural value, are seriously damaged by various infesting microorganisms and often such damage is irreversible. The purpose of this paper is to describe an equipment which has been realized, able to induce, inside the object to be treated, having any shape, and in particular in the infesting agents, a uniform distribution of temperature.

Design/methodology/approach

The equipment consists of a metallic shielding chamber where the objects to be disinfested are placed. Here, through appropriate openings in the walls, electromagnetic energy at the frequency of the microwaves is introduced. The electromagnetic waves provoke a heating effect in the infesting biological forms with no significant thermal effects in the materials of the artistic object due to the different dielectric characteristics and to the very little percentages of water in them.

Findings

The uniform distribution of temperature guarantees that the organisms or the microorganisms are heated up over their lethal temperature while the temperature reached by the object and its spatial variations do not provoke deformations.

Practical implications

The current technologies employed in disinfestation of works of art present big limits as regards excessive treatment times, risks of pollution both for the operator and for the environment and possible damage to the treated objects.

Originality/value

This new system described in the paper gives complete effectiveness of disinfestation, with a rapid treatment, without damage to the objects, with total protection for the operators and the possibility of re‐using the object immediately after the disinfestation process.

Details

COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, vol. 31 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

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Article
Publication date: 11 November 2013

Bruno Bisceglia, Francesca de Terlizzi, Antonio Scaglione and Nicola Francesco Tallarino

Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is an outstanding technique for treatment of tumor nodules which is currently used for treatment of skin metastases, and now it is being developed for…

163

Abstract

Purpose

Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is an outstanding technique for treatment of tumor nodules which is currently used for treatment of skin metastases, and now it is being developed for treatment of internal organs such as, bone, liver, etc. In this work the authors' goal was finding a simple and proper needles configuration, allowing electroporation of whole cancer cell membranes, possibly minimizing direct cell death of healthy tissue.

Design/methodology/approach

This work shows numerical analysis of the ECT of a deep-seated tumor, like in bone tissue of human limb. The tumor is excited by a sequence of square-wave electric pulses (5 kHz), inducing a 1,000 V/cm electric field through a suitable configuration of 30 mm long steel needle electrodes inserted in a part of limb long 20 cm. Treated element is numerically modeled in a very simplified 3D geometry. All materials are assumed as homogeneous, linear and isotropic mediums.

Findings

Electrochemotherapy is based on the local application of short and intense electric pulses that transiently permeabilizes neoplastic cells membrane, thus allowing cytotoxicity increase of a chemotherapeutic drug, bleomycin, and reducing its dosage. The local field in target tissues depends on geometry and position of electrodes, that have to be placed according cancer shape and size, and excited by electric pulses of opportune amplitude. Current efforts are aimed to test whether electric pulses can be applied to bone through invasive needles without affecting the recovery of osteogenetic activity.

Originality/value

The results of the simulation study can help to establish the appropriate geometric and electric setup for treatment of bone metastases in clinical ECT trials. This paper reports results from different needles configurations and show that a proper needle positioning allows complete electroporation of the whole tumor

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Details

COMPEL: The International Journal for Computation and Mathematics in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, vol. 32 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

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