Focusing cross-fire applicator for ultrasonic hyperthermia of tumors

Dynamic nonlinear focal shift in amplitude modulated moderately focused acoustic beams

The phenomenon of the displacement of the position of the pressure, intensity and acoustic radiation force maxima along the axis of focused acoustic beams under increasing driving amplitudes (nonlinear focal shift) is studied for the case of a moderately focused beam excited with continuous and 25kHz amplitude modulated signals, both in water and tissue. We prove that in amplitude modulated beams the linear and nonlinear propagation effects coexist in a semi-period of modulation, giving place to a complex dynamic behavior, where the singular points of the beam (peak pressure, rarefaction, intensity and acoustic radiation force) locate at different points on axis as a function of time. These entire phenomena are explained in terms of harmonic generation and absorption during the propagation in a lossy nonlinear medium both for a continuous and an amplitude modulated beam. One of the possible applications of the acoustic radiation force displacement is the generation of shear waves at different locations by using a focused mono-element transducer excited by an amplitude modulated signal.

A tissue phantom for visualization and measurement of ultrasound-induced cavitation damage

Many ultrasound studies involve the use of tissue-mimicking materials to research phenomena in vitro and predict in vivo bioeffects. We have developed a tissue phantom to study cavitation-induced damage to tissue. The phantom consists of red blood cells suspended in an agarose hydrogel. The acoustic and mechanical properties of the gel phantom were found to be similar to soft tissue properties. The phantom's response to cavitation was evaluated using histotripsy. Histotripsy causes breakdown of tissue structures by the generation of controlled cavitation using short, focused, high-intensity ultrasound pulses. Histotripsy lesions were generated in the phantom and kidney tissue using a spherically focused 1-MHz transducer generating 15 cycle pulses, at a pulse repetition frequency of 100 Hz with a peak negative pressure of 14 MPa. Damage appeared clearly as increased optical transparency of the phantom due to rupture of individual red blood cells. The morphology of lesions generated in the phantom was very similar to that generated in kidney tissue at both macroscopic and cellular levels. Additionally, lesions in the phantom could be visualized as hypoechoic regions on a B-mode ultrasound image, similar to histotripsy lesions in tissue. High-speed imaging of the optically transparent phantom was used to show that damage coincides with the presence of cavitation. These results indicate that the phantom can accurately mimic the response of soft tissue to cavitation and provide a useful tool for studying damage induced by acoustic cavitation.