This technology is a real-time elasticity imaging technique that detects differences in tissue stiffness to map thermal lesions generated during high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) therapy.
Current imaging systems for treatment monitoring need to embody a clinically-oriented, fully-integrated, high-frame rate platform suitable to analyze and stream real-time feedback of treatment assessment to the user. Many systems and techniques for treatment monitoring utilize separate acquisition and processing units, which can be costly and inefficient. Harmonic Motion Imaging for Focused Ultrasound (HMIFU) is a treatment monitoring technique for High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU). HMIFU utilizes an Amplitude-Modulated HIFU beam to induce a localized focal oscillatory motion, which can be simultaneously estimated and imaged by HMI. Despite the benefits, these current techniques are limited by the need to improve frame rate, spatial resolution, and real-time feedback over an extended period of time.
This elasticity imaging technique utilizes a multi-parametric approach to determine tissue stiffening during high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment. In localized elasticity imaging for HMIFU, generally only the focal spot is considered as the region of interest. As such, suitable beamforming strategies for HIFU treatment monitoring can be configured to reconstruct only the focal region, which can reduce computational cost and allows real-time streaming of elasticity maps throughout the entire treatment window. Using a graphical processing unit (GPU)-based algorithm, this system continuously acquires highly accurate thermal lesion maps in real-time. This high frame rate feedback limits overtreatment of healthy tissue and maximizes surgical efficiency, enabling targeted tissue ablation of pathological regions.
This technology has been tested in mouse models of pancreatic cancer.
Patent Issued (US 9,247,921)
IR CU14378
Licensing Contact: Satish Rao
