Medium-intensity focused ultrasound (MIFU) concerns therapeutic ultrasound interventions aimed at stimulating physiological mechanisms to reinforce healing responses without reaching temperatures that can cause permanent tissue damage. The therapeutic outcome is strongly affected by the temperature distribution in the treated region and its accurate monitoring represents an unmet clinical need. In this work, we investigate on the capacities of four-dimensional optoacoustic tomography to monitor tissue heating with MIFU. Calibration experiments in a tissue-mimicking phantom have confirmed that the optoacousticallyestimated temperature variations accurately match the simultaneously acquired thermocouple readings. The performance of the suggested approach in real tissues was further shown with bovine muscle samples. Volumetric temperature maps were rendered in real time, allowing for dynamic monitoring of the ultrasound focal region, estimation of the peak temperature and the size of the heat-affected volume.
It was recently proposed that the lateral resonances around the working resonance band of ultrasonic piezoelectric sandwich transducers can be stopped by a periodic array of circular holes drilled along the main propagation direction (a phononic crystal). In this work, the performance of different transducer designs made with this procedure is tested using laser vibrometry, electric impedance tests and finite element models (FEM). It is shown that in terms of mechanical vibration amplitude and acoustic efficiency, the best design for physiotherapy applications is when both, the piezoceramic and an aluminum capsule are phononic structures. The procedure described here can be applied to the design of power ultrasonic devices, physiotherapy transducers and other external medical power ultrasound applications where piston-like vibration in a narrow band is required.
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