Feasibility Study on Thermography of Embedded Tumor Using Fiber Bragg Grating Thermal Sensor

Thermal imaging is one of the emerging non-invasive neuro-imaging techniques utilized for demarcation of intra-axial brain tumor borders. Tissue regions comprising of tumors is known to attain higher temperature on the surface due to the increased rate of blood flow and cell metabolism and therefore the variation in tissue surface temperature may be accounted as an indicator of a tumor existence. In the present work, Fiber Bragg Grating based Thermal Sensor (FBGTS) is developed for temperature measurement of a simulated tissue based on Agar material which mimics the soft tissue of brain. A heater is embedded inside the simulated tissue which mimics the tumor’s temperature variation inside the brain. The temperature of the embedded heater along with the surface temperature of the simulated tissue is acquired simultaneously using two FBGTS probes. Further, the temperature variations on the surface of the simulated tissue are studied for varying heater temperatures as well as for the varying position of the heater inside the simulated tissue, indicating varying positions of brain tumors. The present study proposes and demonstrates the feasibility of using FBGTS for thermography from which the possible detection and approximate position of an existing brain tumor can be evaluated.