I’m a medical student in an interventional radiology rotation. Today I saw a procedure called “cryoablation” in which compressed argon is circulated through a needle that is inserted into a tumor. Argon expands rapidly when reaching the end of the needle and causes a decrease in temperature freezing the tumor from the inside out ( I understand how this works, I think). Then compressed helium is pumped through the same needle, but in this case the expansion of helium causes an INCREASE in temperature. How is this possible? I tried reading about the Joule-Thomson effect, but it is still really confusing to me. Maybe someone can explain it more simply. Thanks in advance!
In: Physics
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