Temporal switching has been simulated and implemented in vivo experiments as a method to optimize thermal dose in ultrasound surgery. By optimizing the thermal dose over a tissue volume, the peak temperature is decreased, less average power is expended, and overall treatment time is shortened. To test this hypothesis, a 16 element, spherically sectioned array has been constructed for application in ultrasound surgery guided by magnetic resonance imaging. A simulation study for the array was performed to determine an optimal treatment from a set of multiple focus fields. These fields were generated using the mode scanning technique with power levels determined numerically using a direct weighted gradient search in the attempt to create an optimally uniform thermal dose over a 0.6/spl times/0.6/spl times/1.0 cm/sup 3/ tissue volume. Comparisons of the switched fields and a static multiple focus field indicate that the switching technique can lower power requirements and decrease treatment time by 20%. More importantly, the peak temperature of the sonication was lowered 13/spl deg/C, thus decreasing the possibility of cavitation. The simulated results of the 16 element array were then experimentally tested using MRI to noninvasively monitor temperature elevations and predict lesion size in rabbit thigh muscle in vivo. In addition, the results show that the switching technique can be less sensitive to tissue inhomogeneities than static field sonication while creating contiguous necrosis regions at equal average powers.
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