Study on high-intensity focused ultrasound technology for human tissue

Abstract

High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) has been used in clinics as a non-invasive treatment for diseased tissue through ablation by focusing the ultrasonic energy to a target tissue in the human body. Thus, HIFU can be non-invasively applied to treat patients with some cancers. If the HIFU energy is to be focused to a target in the complex human body, a precise ray-tracing method/technique is necessary. Therefore, ultrasonic simulations for HIFU by calculating the HIFU beam fields in a biological multi-layered model through irregular surfaces can support the design and the operation of a HIFU system. In this study, the simulations were performed according to the parameters of the HIFU sensor and were applied to a humanized tissue structure for describing the result at focal point and measuring the pressure and the temperature rises around target. The possibility of predicting the path of the ultrasonic wave penetrating into unspecified human tissue was ascertained and the ultrasonic focusing efficiences were compared according to the design variables. In addition, the in-vivo temperature could be determined by calculating the heat energy as a function of the sound intensity.