High performance calculation of nonlinear wave propagation on GPU for focused ultrasound treatment planning

Abstract

High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is very promising new technology that has many therapeutic application, and among them are the treatment of cancer in different organs without major side effects. Some of the limitations of HIFU are the long treatment time and incomplete ablation. High performance computing can help in this regard. Simulation of nonlinear wave propagation in three dimensional geometry is very time consuming process especially when shocks are presented. In the current work, we are going to present three dimensional parallel solver on GPU. Some examples for the simulation in a patient specific geometry will be also presented. The presented results can be used for the optimization of the treatment. For the validation of the results, ex-vivo and in-vivo experiments have been performed. It has been shown that large volume can be ablated within a short period of time.