Evaluation of a numerical simulation for multibipolar radiofrequency ablation

INTRODUCTION: porcine liver model. A GPU-accelerated finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation coupling the quasi-static Maxwell and Pennes' bioheat equations was implemented to model mbRFA. METHODS: mbRFA were performed using three internally cooled bipolar applicators. A saline-perfused glass tube was employed to simulate a standardized blood flow and positioned at five predefined distances from the ablation center in 2.5 mm increments. Simulated and experimental ablations were compared using area-, surface- and classification-based metrics on a standardized two-dimensional (2D) cross section to evaluate the model's predictive accuracy. RESULTS: ablations and the simulation were 0.92 (Dice coefficient) and 0.85 (Jaccard coefficient), respectively. Compared to the reference area, the simulation overestimated the ablation zone by 4% (false-positive regions) and underestimated it by 10% (false-negative regions). CONCLUSION: Overall, the numerical model demonstrated good spatial agreement with the experimental ablations, confirming its suitability for quantitative prediction of ablation geometry.