Dual mode transducer for ultrasound monitored thermal therapy

A flat single element transducer able to perform and to monitor interstitial therapy is studied. This transducer must generate the acoustic intensity necessary to induce thermal lesions. It must also meet real-time monitoring requirements. A 3x8 mm(2) 7.5 MHz composite transducer was built Acoustic intensities up to 30 W/cm(2) emitted during more than 20 s with efficiency around 80% were measured. The length of the impulse response at -30 dB was 3 periods (0.3 mm). Insertion losses were found to be around 6 dB. A system interrupting high intensity emission periodically in order to acquire RF echo lines was set up. In-vitro tests on porcine liver were done. M-mode images showing the evolution of the lesion depth during the high intensity emission were obtained. The lesion depth estimated on M-mode images was well correlated with the depth measured on the liver samples after the experiments. In this study, we demonstrated that thermal lesions can be both generated and monitored by a specially-designed flat ultrasound transducer.