Receiver array design for sonothrombolysis treatment monitoring in deep vein thrombosis.

Receiver array design for sonothrombolysis treatment monitoring in deep vein thrombosis. Phys Med Biol. 2018 Nov 28;63(23):235017 Authors: Acconcia CN, Jones RM, Hynynen K Abstract High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) can disintegrate blood clots through the generation and stimulation of bubble clouds within thrombi. This work examined the design of a device to image bubble clouds for monitoring cavitation-based HIFU treatments of deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Acoustic propagation simulations were carried out on multi-layered models of the human thigh using two patient data sets from the Visible Human Project. The design considerations included the number of receivers (32, 64, 128, 256, and 512), their spatial positioning, and the effective angular array aperture (100° and 180° about geometric focus). Imaging array performance was evaluated for source frequencies of 250, 750, and 1500 kHz. Receiver sizes were fixed relative to the wavelength (pistons, diameter  =  λ/2) and noise was added at levels that scaled with receiver area. With a 100° angular aperture the long axis size of the  -3 dB main lobe was ~1.2λ-i.e. on the order of the vessel diameter at 250 kHz (~7 mm). Increasing the array aperture to span 180° about the geometric focus reduced the long axis by a factor of ~2. The smaller main lobe sizes achieved by imaging at higher frequencies came at the cost of increased levels of sensitivity to phase a...
Source: Physics in Medicine and Biology - Category: Physics Authors: Tags: Phys Med Biol Source Type: research