A Porous Media Approach to Tumor Diagnosis in the Kidney under Uniaxial Time-Dependent Loading

This study proposed a new method for the tumor diagnosis embedded in the kidney based on a porous media approach. To this end, an in vitro experimental study was conducted on the limb kidney by a robot-assisted device that exerted compressive strain on the tissue surface with a constant velocity. The tumor was simulated in a kidney sample by inserting an external mass inside the tissue while another kidney was healthy and normal. The resultant compressive stress versus the applied strain was recorded. Stress-strain data was used to extract the permeability of the healthy tissue and the mass-included tissue based on the Darcy’s Law. Results affirmed that existence of a concentrated mass as a tumor greatly reduces the permeability of the tissue. Findings have the potential to be used for tumor detection in the kidney tissue.