Real-time monitoring of ultrasound imaging of clinical high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) exposures

Abstract

Currently, many clinical devices use the change in gray scale seen on a real-time ultrasound image for the assessment of the success of HIFU treatment. It has been shown previously that, for a single HIFU lesion, the presence of gray-scale change was indicative of successful ablation in 100% of cases for 1.6-MHz beams, and in 90% of cases for 0.8-MHz exposures. The absence of gray-scale change was a reliable indicator of lack of ablative damage only for 0.8-MHz exposures (80%); in 80% of exposures using 1.6-MHz beams there was a lesion even in the absence of gray-scale change. This study has been extended to more realistic clinical treatment protocols. The image appearance has been studied for the different volume ablation techniques that are used in the treatment of liver and kidney cancer. The results will be presented.