Image-guided handheld HIFU treatment system based on real-time tracking of ultrasound imaging probe and HIFU probe

Abstract

Non-invasive surgery using high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) beam allows numerous clinical applications for tumor-bearing patients. There have been researches and products implementing HIFU treatment for the past decade. However, those have disadvantages in common that their systems are of very high complexity, cost and also require too much space in the operating room. Here, we propose HIFU treatment system which can visualize predicted HIFU focal spot on the actual ultrasound image in real-time. This can be done by optically tracking HIFU probe and imaging probe respectively in real-time and localizing their positions in the same global coordinate system. Hand-eye calibration between imaging probe and ultrasound images is performed and focal point of HIFU beam can be predicted by hydrophone detection. Accuracy and safety of targeting the HIFU beam can be improved by intuitively monitoring real-time images including not only target lesions but also expected HIFU focal spot. Furthermore, by using portable handheld probes, surgeons can secure large enough space for their operations.