CPC A61B 8/481 (2013.01) [A61B 8/0808 (2013.01); A61N 7/02 (2013.01); A61B 8/4488 (2013.01); A61B 2017/00106 (2013.01); A61B 2090/374 (2016.02); A61N 2007/0091 (2013.01); A61N 2007/0095 (2013.01)] | 5 Claims |
1. A method for controlling delivery of ultrasound energy to a subject with a focused ultrasound (FUS) system, the steps of the method comprising:
a) administering an ultrasound contrast agent to a subject;
b) selecting a pressure value;
c) delivering ultrasound energy with a FUS system to a subject to produce cavitation of the contrast agent at the selected pressure;
d) receiving an acoustic signal from the cavitation produced in step c);
e) producing a signal spectrum from the acoustic signal received in step d);
f) analyzing the signal spectrum produced in step d) to identify whether at least one of subharmonics and ultraharmonics is present in the signal spectrum; and
g) updating the selected pressure value according to a weighting factor that decreases the pressure value to a target level as a normalized value of pressure for the at least one of subharmonics and ultraharmonics by using information related to whether the at least one of subharmonics and ultraharmonics is present in the signal spectrum, the information being derived from the analyzed signal spectrum;
wherein the pressure value is updated in step g) by reducing the pressure value in subsequent sonications in order to provide disruption of a blood-brain barrier without other effects on tissues.
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