A Comparison Between the Pulsed and Duty Cycle Approaches Used to Capture the Thermal Response of Tissue During Electroporation-Based Therapies

Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a new minimally invasive non-thermal focal ablation technique that has been used for the treatment of spontaneous tumors in canine and human patients [1–4]. The procedure involves placing electrodes into or around a tumor and delivering a series of low energy electric pulses to kill tumor tissue with sub-millimeter resolution. The pulses generate an electric field that alters the resting transmembrane potential (TMP) of the cells [1]. Depending on the magnitude of the induced TMP, the electric pulses can have no effect, transiently increase membrane permeability, or cause cell death [1].