Contributions
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Self-scanned HIFU ablation of moving tissue using real-time hybrid US-MR imaging
High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) treatment in the abdominal cavity is challenging due to the respiratory motion. In the self-scanned HIFU ablation method the focal spot is kept static and the heating pattern is obtained through natural tissue motion. A novel approach is described for compensating for the effect of tissue motion on thermal build-up, by modulating the HIFU power during self-scanning according to tissue speed, estimated by speckle tracking on ultrasound images. This method provides the first experimental validation of the self-scanning HIFU ablation paradigm via a real-time hybrid MRI/US imaging, opening the path towards self-scanning in vivo therapies.