Ultrasound for therapy control or monitoring

Abstract

Therapy control and / or monitoring is performed with an ultrasound scanner. The ultrasound scanner detects temperature to monitor therapy, and perform HIFU beam location refocusing of the therapy system based on the temperature. The monitoring is synchronized with the therapy using a trigger output of the ultrasound scanner. The trigger output responds to a scan sequence of the ultrasound scanner. To meet a given therapy plan, the scan sequence is customized, resulting in the customized trigger sequence. Three dimensional or multi-planar reconstruction rendering is used to represent temperature for monitoring feedback. The temperature at locations not being treated may be monitored. If the temperature has an undesired characteristic (e.g., too high), then the therapy is controlled by ceasing, at least temporarily.

Description

Background technique [0001] This embodiment relates to heat therapy. For example, high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) generates heat in the patient's body. In HIFU therapy, the HIFU treatment device uses heat to perform the ablation, and an imaging system monitors the progress of the ablation. The imaging system displays images allowing the user to indicate a desired target area for treatment. In order to administer the drug to the correct region of interest, the coordinates of the imaging system are registered with the coordinates of the HIFU treatment device. [0002] In an integrated system, the therapy transducer and the imaging transducer have a set or fixed relative position. The same transducer can be used for both imaging and therapy. In other arrangements, an ultrasound imaging system images and a separate therapy system applies therapy. However, there is no feedback from the imaging system to the treatment system, or despite the separation, a dedicated comm...

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Dedicated communications may require costly software changes or hardware changes

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