We studied the influence of electrode array parameters on temperature distribution to the retina during the use of retinal prosthesis in order to avoid thermal damage to retina caused by long-term electrical stimulation. Based on real epiretinal prosthesis, a three-dimensional model of electrical stimulation for retina with 4×4 microelectrode array had been established using the finite element software (COMSOL Multiphysics). The steady-state temperature field of electrical stimulation of the retina was calculated, and the effects of the electrode parameters such as the distance between the electrode contacts, the materials and area of the electrode contact on temperature field were considered. The maximum increase in the retina steady temperature was about 0.004℃ with practical stimulation current. When the distance between the electrode contacts was changed from 130 μm to 520 μm, the temperature was reduced by about 0.006℃. When the contact radius was doubled from 130 μm to 260 μm, the temperature decrease was about 0.005℃. It was shown that there were little temperature changes in the retina with a 4×4 epiretinal microelectrode array, reflecting the safety of electrical stimulation. It was also shown that the maximum temperature in the retina decreased with increasing the distance between the electrode contacts, as well as increasing the area of electrode contact. However, the change of the maximum temperature was very small when the distance became larger than the diameter of electrode contact. There was no significant difference in the effects of temperature increase among the different electrode materials. Rational selection of the distance between the electrode contacts and their area in electrode design can reduce the temperature rise induced by electrical stimulation.
The nondestructive reconstruction of three-dimensional (3D) temperature field in biological tissue is always an important problem to be resolved in biomedical engineering field. This paper presents a novel method of nondestructive reconstruction of 3D temperature field in biological tissue based on multi-island genetic algorithm (MIGA). By this method, the resolving of inverse problem of bio-heat transfer is transformed to be a solving process of direct problem. An experiment and its corresponding simulation were carried out to verify the feasibility and reliability. In the experiment a high purity polypropylene material, whose thermophysical parameters were similar to the fat tissue being tested, were adopted so that it could avoid the negative results created by the other factors. We set the position P(x, y, z) as the point heat source in the biological tissue and its temperature t as optimization variable, got the experimental temperature values of the points in a module surface, subtracted them from the corresponding simulating temperature values in the same module surface, and then took the sum of absolute value. We took it as the objective function of successive iteration. It was found that the less the target value was, the more optimal the current variables, i.e. the heat source position and the temperature values, were. To improve the optimization efficiency, a novel establishment method of objective function was also provided. The simulating position and experimental position of heat source were very approximate to each other. When the optimum values are determined, the corresponding 3D temperature field is also confirmed, and the temperature distribution of arbitrary section can be acquired. The MIGA can be well applied in the reconstruction of 3D temperature field in biological tissue. Because of the differences between the MIGA and the traditional numerical methods, we do not have to acquire all the data of surface. It is convenient and fast, and shows a prosperous application future.