Four-dimensional optoacoustic monitoring of tissue heating with medium intensity focused ultrasound.

Medium-intensity focused ultrasound (MIFU) concerns therapeutic ultrasound interventions aimed at stimulating physiological mechanisms to reinforce healing responses without reaching temperatures that can cause permanent tissue damage. The therapeutic outcome is strongly affected by the temperature distribution in the treated region and its accurate monitoring represents an unmet clinical need. In this work, we investigate on the capacities of four-dimensional optoacoustic tomography to monitor tissue heating with MIFU. Calibration experiments in a tissue-mimicking phantom have confirmed that the optoacoustically-estimated temperature variations accurately match the simultaneously acquired thermocouple readings. The performance of the suggested approach in real tissues was further shown with bovine muscle samples. Volumetric temperature maps were rendered in real time, allowing for dynamic monitoring of the ultrasound focal region, estimation of the peak temperature and the size of the heat-affected volume.

Volumetric Optoacoustic Temperature Mapping in Photothermal Therapy.

Photothermal therapy and ablation are commonplace medical procedures employed for treatment of tumors, vascular and brain abnormalities as well as other disorders that require selective destruction of tissues. Yet, accurate mapping of the dynamic temperature field distribution in the treated region represents an unmet clinical need, strongly affecting the clinical outcome of these interventions. We introduce a fast three-dimensional temperature mapping method based on real-time optoacoustic sensing of the treated region coupled with a thermal-diffusion-based model of heat distribution in tissues. Deviations of the optoacoustic temperature readings provided at 40  ms intervals remained below 10% in tissue-mimicking phantom experiments for temperature elevations above 3 °C, as validated by simultaneous thermocouple measurements. Performance of the new method to dynamically estimate the volumetric temperature distribution was further showcased in post-mortem mouse imaging experiments. The newly discovered capacity to non-invasively measure the temperature map in an entire treated volume with both high spatial and temporal resolutions holds potential for improving safety and efficacy of light-based therapeutic interventions.