Development of an Inverse Technique to Estimate the Ultrasound Field During Chest Wall and Breast Hyperthermia

摘要

The goal of this research was to develop a clinical system for improved numerical modeling of ultrasound propagation through breast tissue and the post-mastectomy chest wall for use in patient treatment planning of hyperthermia cancer treatments. This has included the following: Development of an efficient numerical model that predicts the ultrasound behavior based on nodal tissue parameters. The tissue parameters are set using a combination of accepted literature values and experimental data acquired using a patient geometry and tissue attenuation acquisition system developed as part of this program. The power input to the model is determined using experimental transducer power field data (collected with a hydrophone), a transducer model, and an inverse optimization scheme that significantly reduces the error in the transducer model. Initial plans had included using the inverse technique to optimize the nodal tissue parameters, however, experiments with clinical thermocouple probes showed scatter as large as the error in the ultrasonic tissue attenuation measurements, making the optimization unnecessary.