Law of diffusion bubbles produced by high-voltage pulsed electric field in liquid
Authors: Wu Xiao-Dong , Chen Yan-Zhou , Han Rui , Guo Yu-Yi , Zhuang Jie , Shi Fu-Kun ,   Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, School of Biomedical Engineering (Suzhou), University of Science and Technology of China, Suzhou 215163, China,   Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215163, China,   Jinan Guoke Medical Technology Development Co., Ltd, Jinan 250101, China
Published: September 2023

Pulsed electric field is a novel physical energy source for treating atrial fibrillation and tumor ablation, which has advantages over traditional thermal ablation, such as being non-thermal, short treatment time, tissue selectivity, and low contact pressure requirements. The diffusion bubbles generated during physical ablation may lead to gas embolism and silent cerebral events, with potential hazards such as tissue damage and cerebral ischemia. Previous studies have shown that the number of bubbles generated is correlated with the electrical properties of the treated object, pulse parameters (pulse waveform, treatment time and input energy), and electrodes. The number of bubbles are more significant at the cathode than at the anode, and the number of bubbles positively correlates with the input energy. However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have been conducted to investigate the effects of ablation pulse parameters on diffusion bubbles. Therefore, in our experiment, a platform for producing pulses and observing diffusion bubble is built, and the needle-ring electrode we made realizes the capture and measurement of diffusion bubbles. Since pulses with a voltage of 3 kV and a pulse width of 100 μs are commonly used as ablation parameters for atrial fibrillation and tumor in pulsed field ablation (PFA), the pulse width of unipolar pulse is selected as 5, 10, 50, and 100 μs, and the number of pulses applied is 1. The pulse voltage is determined according to the parameters commonly used in PFA and the simulation calculation of the field strength distribution of the needle-ring electrode. After determining the parameters, this experiment explicitly investigates the relationships among diffusion bubbles and solution conductivity, pulse voltage, pulse width, input energy, and other parameters. Meanwhile, the size distributions of diffusion bubbles under different operating conditions are statistically investigated. Besides, the possible causes of diffuse bubbles are also explored. We evaluate the number of bubbles by measuring the cross-sectional area of the diffusion bubbles from a top-down perspective. The experimental results show that the area of diffusion bubbles generated in the liquid is positively correlated with pulse voltage and input energy; high conductivity and long pulse width can enhance the thermal effect and increase the area of diffusion bubbles; diffusion bubbles with a diameter larger than 100 μm are easily generated under high conductivity and high pulse width conditions. By speculating on the results, the electrolytic reaction may be the main source of diffusion bubbles when the needle electrode is the cathode. This study is expected to optimize future pulsed electric field ablation parameters.