US 11,786,760 B2
Multi-beam neuromodulation techniques
John Frederick Graf, Ballston Lake, NY (US); Christopher Michael Puleo, Niskayuna, NY (US); Jeffrey Michael Ashe, Gloversville, NY (US); Victoria Eugenia Cotero, Troy, NY (US); and David Andrew Shoudy, Niskayuna, NY (US)
Assigned to GE Precision Healthcare LLC, Waukesha, WI (US)
Filed by General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US)
Filed on Dec. 10, 2019, as Appl. No. 16/709,717.
Prior Publication US 2021/0170203 A1, Jun. 10, 2021
Int. Cl. A61N 7/00 (2006.01)
CPC A61N 7/00 (2013.01) [A61N 2007/0026 (2013.01); A61N 2007/0052 (2013.01); A61N 2007/0086 (2013.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An ultrasound system, comprising:
an ultrasound transducer comprising a plurality of individually addressable elements configured to distribute a dose of ultrasound energy between a plurality of regions of interest in a subject; and
a controller configured to:
control the dose applied by the plurality of individually addressable elements between the plurality of regions of interest;
receive ultrasound image data of tissue of the subject from the ultrasound transducer while the ultrasound transducer is operating in an imaging mode;
divide the ultrasound image data of the tissue into a plurality of segments representative of the tissue;
receive input on selection of a single region of interest;
selecting a plurality of regions of interest based on the selected single region of interest, each region of interest of the plurality of regions of interest being located within a different segment of the plurality of segments, wherein a first segment of the plurality of segments is nonadjacent to a second segment of the plurality of segments;
focus the ultrasound transducer on the selected plurality of regions of interest;
control the ultrasound transducer in a treatment mode to distribute the dose of ultrasound energy between the plurality of regions of interest to neuromodulate two or more neural pathways of the subject, wherein the ultrasound energy is associated with levels less than those associated with ablation of the tissue, and wherein the neuromodulation of the two or more neural pathways induces a physiological effect; and
receive input related to the induced physiological effect.