Numerical analysis of thermal response of tissues subjected to high intensity focused ultrasound

The present work is concerned with the numerical investigation of the thermal response of tissue-mimicking biological phantom(s) subjected to high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU). Simulations have been performed on the 3-dimensional physical domain for two-layered as well as multi-layered medium consisting of water and liver tissue. Local pressure distribution within the body of the phantom has been calculated by solving the complete full-wave nonlinear form of Westervelt equation. The solution of the pressure wave equation has been coupled with Pennes bioheat transfer equation to determine the full field temperature distribution. Results in the form of pressure fields, temperature distributions and the corresponding thermal dosage in the targeted region of the tissue domain have been presented. Magnitudes of the maximum pressure (and hence the resultant temperature levels) in the focal region as obtained using the nonlinear form of Westervelt equation are found to be significantly higher than that determined based on the linear form of the equation. Compared to water, wherein the acoustic intensity is maximum, the addition of sub-layers of skin, fat, and muscle into water resulted in the reduction of the peak intensity and also shifted the intensity profiles along the direction of propagation of the acoustic waves. However, addition of liver tissue into water led to the shifting of intensity profile in the opposite direction i.e., towards the transducer. The results further reveal that due to the dependence of attenuation coefficient on the source frequency, the temperature at the focal region increases with an increase in the transducer frequency. The work is further extended from single lesion to multiple lesion generation through controlled movement of the transducer and the resultant transient full field temperature distribution has been presented. The concerned observations highlight the need of optimizing the thermal energy for each lesion, the inter spatial distance between different lesions and the delay time so as to ensure minimal thermal damage to the surrounding healthy cells as well as to reduce the total treatment duration.