US 12,350,526 B2
Doppler guided ultrasound therapy
Shmuel Ben-Ezra, Pardes-Hanna (IL)
Assigned to NINA MEDICAL LTD, Nazareth (IL)
Appl. No. 16/246,522
Filed by NINA MEDICAL LTD, Nazareth (IL)
PCT Filed Jul. 13, 2017, PCT No. PCT/IL2017/050799
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jan. 13, 2019,
PCT Pub. No. WO2018/015944, PCT Pub. Date Jan. 25, 2018.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/363,295, filed on Jul. 17, 2016.
Prior Publication US 2019/0232090 A1, Aug. 1, 2019
Int. Cl. A61N 7/02 (2006.01); A61B 8/00 (2006.01); A61N 7/00 (2006.01)
CPC A61N 7/02 (2013.01) [A61B 8/485 (2013.01); A61B 8/488 (2013.01); A61N 2007/0052 (2013.01); A61N 2007/0073 (2013.01); A61N 2007/0095 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus for use with a focal region of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) energy, the apparatus comprising:
(A) an ultrasound transducer configured to generate a first acoustic field by emitting the HIFU energy into a region of a medium at a first frequency, the first acoustic field generating oscillatory motion of scatterers disposed within the medium in the region, the scatterers oscillating at the first frequency;
(B) an acoustic probe,
wherein the acoustic probe is configured to emit pulse-echo ultrasound energy into the medium at an imaging frequency,
wherein an acoustic element is selected from the group consisting of the ultrasound transducer and the acoustic probe, and wherein the acoustic element is configured to generate a second acoustic field by transmitting a pulsed acoustic wave into the region at a second frequency,
wherein the second frequency is higher than the first frequency and wherein the second acoustic field scatters off the scatterers at Doppler-shifted frequencies that are related to the oscillatory motion of the scatterers, resulting in echo data containing a time-dependent Doppler shift that oscillates at a frequency that is related to the first frequency, and
wherein the acoustic probe is further configured to receive the echo data of the second acoustic field scattering off the scatterers; and
(C) control circuitry configured to (a) synchronize the first and second acoustic fields such that the pulsed acoustic wave at the second frequency is transmitted into the region while the HIFU energy is being emitted into the region, (b) generate a real-time sonogram of the medium from reflections of the pulse-echo ultrasound energy, (c) extract the oscillating time-dependent Doppler shift from the received echo data, (d) convert the extracted Doppler shift into acoustic particle-velocity of the first acoustic field in the region, and (e) generate a map of acoustic particle-velocities of the first acoustic field on a portion of the sonogram corresponding to the region.