Bioheat Transfer - The Cardiovascular System

The Cardiovascular System

The cardiovascular system is the key system by which heat is distributed throughout the body. The blood serves as the vehicle to transport heat from the areas of high heat to areas of lower heat. In general this transfer takes place in the direction from body core to extremities such as the limbs and head. In the case where the extremities are hotter than the core body temperature, perfusion would serve to transport heat from the extremity back towards the body core. Whether or not the core temperature rises depends on many factors such as the duration of elevated local temperature at the extremity, temperature difference between extremity and core, volume of blood heated above core temperature, and the rate of blood perfusion. This same moderating phenomena of blood perfusion can be applied to local heat transfer problems e.g. heating of a tumor.