Boiling effects on the performance of Harmonic Motion Imaging for Focused Ultrasound

Harmonic Motion Imaging (HMI) for Focused Ultrasound (HMIFU) is a recently developed high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment monitoring method with feasibilities demonstrated in vitro and in vivo. However, successful application of HMIFU requires monitoring of local tissue mechanical property changes, i.e., the estimation HMIFU displacement under both thermal and mechanical effects (i.e., boiling, cavitation, nonlinearity etc). The present study aims at assessing the performance of HMI monitoring during HIFU. We show here that HMI gives a good contrast when a lesion is formed even during strong boiling.