Presentazioni e Articoli Tecnici

Focused ultrasound systems guided by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and thermometry have recently made possible the non-invasive thermal ablation of benign tumors such as uterine fibroids in clinical practice. Much more work is however required in order to make this technology available for the treatment of other forms of cancer. One of the major difficulties is associated with the presence of blood vessels that are an important cause of temperature inhomogeneity preventing the optimal control of temperature required for a successful outcome. To address this problem, focused ultrasound treatments have been simulated with COMSOL for a homogeneous block of musclelike tissue with either one or multiple discrete vessels. Our results indicate a wide variability in the achieved temperature and thermal dose distributions during the different treatments. We have shown that this variability can be greatly reduced with a treatment planning that takes into account the presence of blood vessels and blood flow.