Interstitial helical coil microwave antenna for experimental brain hyperthermia.

A helical coil 2450-MHz microwave antenna was used to induce interstitial hyperthermia in normal dog brain. The HCS-10(1)/11 antenna consisted of a miniature semirigid coaxial cable around which a fine wire coil with 10 turns per 1-cm length was wound. A single antenna and two or three temperature probes were implanted stereotactically, and the temperature distributions surrounding the antenna were measured and compared to those induced using a dipole antenna. The helical coil antenna produced well-localized temperature distributions at depths that were symmetrical around the coil and that extended to the antenna tip. There was minimal variation of the heating patterns with insertion depth using the HCS-10(1)/11 antenna and no excessive heating of extracerebral tissues. In contrast, 2450-MHz dipole antennas induced temperatures of 43 to 46 degrees C at the brain surface and extracerebral tissues (skull, muscle, and scalp), with a relatively uniform but lower temperature in the targeted brain volume. One week after hyperthermia treatment, the thermal lesions induced by the helical coil antenna were visualized using computed tomography. The heating patterns correlated well with the location of the heat lesions and were reproducible among animals. The results indicated that the helical coil antenna could be used to induce localized hyperthermia at specific depths in normal brain without inducing unacceptable heating of the brain surface or extracerebral tissues. Consequently, this antenna seems to be suitable for studying the response of normal brain after a heat insult and may be effective in the application of interstitial microwave brain hyperthermia for malignant brain tumors.