• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
• /
• v.39 no.1
• /
• pp.16-23
• /
• 2020

In High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) treatment, effective localization of HIFU focus is important for developing a safe treatment plan. While Magnetic Resonance Imaging guided HIFU (MRIgHIFU) can visualize the ultrasound path during the treatment for localizing HIFU focus, it is challenging in ultrasound imaging guided HIFU (USIgHIFU). In the present study, a real-time ultrasound beam visualization technique capable of localizing HIFU focus is presented for USIgHIFU. In the proposed method, a short pulse, with the same center frequency of an imaging ultrasound transducer below the regulated acoustic intensity (i.e., Ispta < 720 mW/㎠), was transmitted through a HIFU transducer whereupon backscattered signals were received by the imaging transducer. To visualize the HIFU beam path, the backscattered signals underwent dynamic receive focusing and subsequent echo processing. From in vitro experiments with bovine serum albumin gel phantoms, the HIFU beam path was clearly depicted with low acoustic intensity (i.e., Ispta of 94.8 mW/㎠) and the HIFU focus was successfully localized before any damages were produced. This result indicates that the proposed ultrasound beam path visualization method can be used for localizing the HIFU focus in real time while minimizing unwanted tissue damage in USIgHIFU treatment.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.22 no.5
• /
• pp.221-228
• /
• 2021

Recently, there has been an increased awareness on the use of High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) as a non-surgical treatment option for leiomyomas. This study aimed to assess gynecologists' perception of HIFU therapy for uterine leiomyomas in Korea. We analyzed questionnaires from 162 Korean gynecologists who provided data on 1) demographics, 2) pattern of practice with respect to leiomyomas, and 3) opinion regarding HIFU therapy for leiomyomas. Of the 162 gynecologists, 2.8 % regarded HIFU as a first-line treatment for leiomyomas. HIFU was only available at the workplace of 19 % of respondents; of these, 58 % had requested the use of HIFU. When asked about their perception of HIFU for treating leiomyomas, only 19 % of the respondents thought that it was effective. The commonest perceived complication was a delay in the adequate treatment of sarcoma (59 %), followed by bowel injury (52 %). The respondents considered HIFU to be suitable in the following circumstances: age between 40 and 49 years, those patients who no longer desired pregnancy, medium-sized (5-6 cm) leiomyomas, and up to 2 leiomyomas. The Korean gynecologists' perception of HIFU as a treatment for leiomyomas is still not favorable. Gynecologists working at hospitals where HIFU is available tended to have a higher positive perception of this treatment. In addition to research involving a large number of gynecologists from multiple countries, a study on the long-term outcomes of HIFU is needed.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.116-123
• /
• 2023

A high intensity focuses ultrasound (HIFU) is one of the emerging technologies in the biomedical field. The piezoelectric HIFU transducer is a device that utilizes the thermal energy generated by high ultrasound energy. Recently an operating frequency of the HIFU transducer is to expand above a 7 MHz. In this study, the acoustic pressures and temperature distributions in the tissue that generated by the HIFU transducer at 10 MHz were calculated with the finite element method. In addition, the pressure focusing characteristics of the device were analyzed. The geometrical variables are the piezomaterial thickness, lens shape, water height, and film thickness. The results shown that the acoustic pressure increased and saturated gradually when the height/radius (H_L/R_L) ratio of the lens increased. Moreover, the focal area was gradually decreases with H_L/R_L ratio of the lens. In case of the optimized HIFU transducer, the maximum pressure and temperature were analyzed about 19 MPa and 65℃ respectively. And the -3 dB focused distances in the axial and lateral direction are around 2.3 mm and 0.23 mm respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Burn Society
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.64-67
• /
• 2020

High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) has been regarded as a non-invasive uterine-preserving treatment for women with uterine myoma. Numerous studies have reported that it is a relatively safe and effective treatment for uterine myoma. However, severe complications, such as deep thermal burn injuries, bowel perforation, and bladder injury, were reported on rare occasions. We report a case of a 4th degree burn on the lower abdomen after HIFU treatment for uterine myoma. Physicians must consider the possibility of deep thermal burn injuries when managing uterine myoma with HIFU.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
• /
• v.25 no.8
• /
• pp.1022-1037
• /
• 2022

It is important to develop a transducer that generates uniform output power through frequency control of the HIFU at 4 MHz frequency for the high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) skin diseases treatment. In this paper, a 4 MHz frequency band HIFU system for skin disease treatment was designed, manufactured and developed. In HIFU, even for the ultrasonic vibrator in the 4 MHz frequency band, the characteristics of the output power of the HIFU are different depending on the difference in the thickness of the PZT material. Through the development of a system amplifier, the sound output of the HIFU transducer was improved to more than 48 W and uniform output power control was possible. And, it is possible to control the output power even in a frequency band of 4.0 to 4.7 MHz, which is wider than 4.0 MHz, and shows the resonance frequency of the transducer. The maximum output power for each frequency was 49.969 W and the minimum value was 48.018 W. The maximum output power compared to the minimum output power is 49.969 W, which is uniform within 4.1%. It was confirmed that the output power of the HIFU through the amplifier can be uniformly controlled in the 4 MHz frequency band.

• Medical Lasers
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.13-18
• /
• 2019

Background and Objectives High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) can produce small zones of thermal damage. A HIFU procedure is non-invasive and it can achieve rejuvenation of facial skin. Fractional CO₂ laser resurfacing delivers thermal damage to the pixilated columnar zone of the skin and so evoke collagen remodeling, the same as HIFU. In many cases, the patients who want rejuvenation with HIFU are also good candidates for cutaneous photorejuvenation such as can be accomplished via fractional CO₂ resurfacing. If patients are treated in a single session by remodeling both the superficial and deep compartments of skin by using both modalities, then improvement in rhytides and tightening of sagging skin will optimize the aesthetic result. Materials and Methods Between May 2014 and January 2018, a total of 44 patients were treated with combination HIFU and fractional CO₂ laser resurfacing according to our protocol. First, the HIFU was applied to the entire face with an average of 300 treatment lines. Immediately after HIFU treatment, the ultrasound gel was washed off and then fractional CO₂ laser resurfacing was performed. We evaluated the patients using 4-point grading scales. The clinician examined the skin for evidence of complications after the completion of treatment. Results All the patients' skin quality showed improvement. Further. the clinical results after duel modality treatment were substantially better than that after the use of either modality alone. The recovery times and the incidence of adverse events when quickly and consecutively performing both treatments were similar as compared to those with employing stepwise treatment. We encountered no complications whatsoever. Conclusion When compared with stepwise therapy, combination therapy with HIFU and fractional CO₂ resurfacing offers better, safer and more effective clinical results. Thus, for targeting multiple layers of aging facial skin, this combination therapy can be safely performed in a single treatment session.

• Journal of the Korean Physical Society
• /
• v.73 no.9
• /
• pp.1289-1294
• /
• 2018

The present study aims to investigate experimentally and theoretically thermal ablation in soft tissues by using high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) to assess tissue damage during HIFU thermotherapy. The HIFU field was calculated by solving the axisymmetric Khokhlov-Zabolotskaya-Kuznetsov equation from the frequency-domain perspective. The temperature field was calculated by solving Pennes' bioheat transfer equation, and the thermal dose required to create a thermal lesion was calculated by using the thermal dose formula based on the thermal dose of a 240-min exposure at $43^{\circ}C$. In order to validate the simulation results, we performed thermal ablation experiments in a tissue-mimicking phantom and ex-vivo porcine liver for two different HIFU source conditions by using a 1.1-MHz, single-element, spherically focused HIFU transducer. The small difference between the measured and the predicted lesion sizes suggests that the implementation of the numerical model used here should be modified to iteratively allow for temperature-dependent changes in the physical properties of tissues.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
• /
• v.29 no.2E
• /
• pp.55-63
• /
• 2010

High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) is a noninvasive surgical method mainly targeting deeply located cancer tissue. Ultrasound is generated from an extemally located transducer and the beam is focused at the target volume, so that selective damage can be achieved without harm to overlying or surrounding tissues. The mechanism for cell killing can be combination of thermal and cavitational damage. Although cavitation can be an effective means of tissue destruction, the possibility of massive hemorrhage and the unpredictable nature of cavitational events prevent clinical application of cavitation. Hence, thermal damage has been a main focus related to HIFU research. 2D phased array transducer systems allow electronic scanning of focus, multi-foci, and anti-focus with multi-foci, so that HIFU becomes more applicable in clinical use. Currently, lack of noninvasive monitoring means of HIFU is the main factor to limit clinical applications, but development in MRI and Ultrasound Imaging techniques may be able to provide solutions to overcome this problem. With the development of advanced focusing algorithm and monitoring means, complete noninvasive surgery is expected to be implemented in the near future.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
• /
• v.28 no.5
• /
• pp.236-240
• /
• 2017

In this paper, we investigate the thermal response of skin tissue to high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) by means of infrared (IR) thermal imaging. For skin tightening, a 7-MHz ultrasound transducer is used to induce irreversible tissue coagulation in porcine skin. An IR camera is employed to monitor spatiotemporal changes of the temperature in the tissue. The maximum temperature in the tissue increased linearly with applied energy, up to $90^{\circ}C$. The extent of irreversible tissue coagulation (up to 3.2 mm in width) corresponds well to the spatial distribution of the temperature during HIFU sonication. Histological analysis confirms that the temperature beyond the coagulation threshold (${\sim}65^{\circ}C$) delineates the margin of collagen denaturation in the tissue. IR thermal imaging can be a feasible method for quantifying the degree of thermal coagulation in HIFU-induced skin treatment.

• The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.17-24
• /
• 2005

Local treatment for tumors has developed from extended radical surgery to function preserving surgery on the basis of modern biology. With the development of minimally invasive technique, it changed to be minimal-invasive surgery. And nowadays technical revolution made non-invasive surgery possible with appearance of several kinds of non-surgical knives such as gamma knife, cyber knife, and HIFU (high intensity focused ultrasound) knife. In this article, history, HIFU machine and treatment procedure, histological change and its mechanism, clinical applications, advantage, disadvantage, and future prospect of extracorporeal high intensity focused ultrasound therapy using HIFU knife will be reviewed.