Formation of shock waveforms and millisecond boiling in an attenuative tissue phantom due to high-intensity focused ultrasound

Abstract

Nonlinear propagation effects during high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatments can induce shocks in the acoustic waveform, dramatically accelerate heating rates, and result in rapid boiling of tissue at the focus. Localized boiling can be used for targeting and calibration of clinical HIFU treatments. In our previous work, millimeter size boiling bubbles were observed in several milliseconds in a weakly absorptive transparent tissue phantom, and temperature rise to 100<th>°C was calculated using weak shock theory from experimentally measured and numerically simulated focal waveforms [Canney et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 120, 3110 (2006)]. In this work, experiments are extended to an opaque phantom that has higher attenuation (0.5 dB/cm/MHz in the new phantom versus 0.15 dB/cm/MHz in the previous one) more similar to real tissue. Focal acoustic waveforms are measured using a fiber optic probe hydrophone and time to boil is monitored using a 20-MHz acoustic detector. Modeling of experimental conditions is performed with a KZK-type numerical model. Results demonstrate that although higher source amplitude is needed to attain the same focal amplitudes in the new, more attenuative phantom, similar amplitude shocks can be formed, resulting in equally fast heating rates. [Work supported by NIH DK43881 and NSBRI SMS00402.]