An ablation catheter comprises: an elongated catheter body extending longitudinally between a proximal end and a distal end along a longitudinal axis; a distal member disposed adjacent the distal end, the distal member including an ablation element to ablate a biological member; one or more acoustic transducers disposed in the distal member and each configured to direct an acoustic signal toward a respective target ablation region and receive reflection echoes therefrom; and an acoustic redirection member disposed in the distal member to at least partially redirect the acoustic signal from at least one of the acoustic transducers toward a tissue target. The distal member includes a most-distal portion, a proximal portion, and a deflectable portion between the most-distal portion and proximal portion to permit deflection between the most-distal portion and proximal portion of the distal member. The transducers and redirection member are mounted on opposite sides of the deflectable portion.

A system for therapeutic ultrasound includes one or more ultrasound transducer modules that are configured to generate ultrasound waves at a first power level and at a second power level, the first and second power levels being different and the second power level being sufficient to provide a therapeutic effect for a living subject, and an electronic controller in communication with the one or more ultrasound transducer modules, the electronic controller being programmed to cause the one or more ultrasound transducer modules to generate a first ultrasound wave at the first power level and detect a reflected ultrasound wave from the subject in response to the first ultrasound wave, determine a location of a target within the subject based on the detected reflected ultrasound wave, and, after determining the location of the target, generate a second ultrasound wave at the second power level focused at the target.

A medical imaging system configured to provide cardiac sonothrombolysis therapy is disclosed. Various embodiments of portable cardiac sonothrombolysis devices are disclosed. The devices may be configured to determine if one or more ultrasound probes have a proper view of the heart, and if not, may steer the beam to a desired location. The ultrasound probes may be configured for both imaging and cardiac sonothrombolysis therapy. The ultrasound probes may be configured to be hands-free. The portable devices may be configured to provide operating instructions to an operator. The instructions may be provided via graphics, audio, and/or video.

Lung tumors are treated in-vitro and in-vivo by an apparatus and method for operating the apparatus wherein the lung being treated is made receptive to ultrasound in order to allow the ultrasound waves to be guided through the healthy lung tissue to the tumor tissue in an optimized manner for the use of FUS therapy.

A focused-ultrasound or other procedure for treating a target within a tissue region can be planned iteratively by creating a treatment plan specifying a treatment location pattern and stimuli applied thereto, simulating the treatment, computationally predicting an effect of the simulated treatment, comparing the predicted effect against one or more treatment constraints (such as efficacy and/or safety thresholds), and, if a constraint is violated, repeating the simulation for an adjusted treatment plan.

Various approaches to delivering ultrasound energy to a target region include an ultrasound transducer having multiple transducer elements for generating a focal zone of acoustic energy at the target region, wherein one or more transducer elements are partitioned into multiple contiguous sub-regions having a common directionality; one or more driver circuits connected to the transducer element(s); a switch matrix having multiple switches for switchably connecting the sub-regions to the driver circuit(s), each of the sub-regions being associated with one of the switches; and a controller configured to (i) determine an optimal sonication frequency for maximizing a peak acoustic intensity in the focal zone; and (ii) based at least in part on the determined optimal sonication frequency, activate one or more switches in the switch matrix for causing the corresponding sub-region(s) to transmit ultrasound pulses to the target region.

Garment systems including a flexible compression garment, at least one sensor, and at least one therapeutic stimulation delivery device operable responsive to sensing feedback from the at least one sensor, effective to provide therapeutic radiation to a body part of a subject. Methods of using such garment systems are also described.

Systems and methods for applying ultrasound sonication to temporarily disrupt a patient's blood-brain barrier (BBB) include storing threshold values of an acoustic response level, an acoustic response dose and a tissue response dose associated with a target BBB region and its surrounding regions based on anatomical characteristics thereof; causing the ultrasound transducer to transmit one or more pulses/waves; measuring the acoustic response level, the acoustic response dose, and/or the tissue response dose associated with the target BBB region and/or its surrounding regions; comparing the measurement with a corresponding stored threshold value; and operating the transducer based at least in part on the comparison.

Various approaches for reducing microbubble interference with ultrasound waves transmitted from multiple transducer elements and traversing tissue onto a target region include measuring microbubbles in high-throughput areas of ultrasound exposure and reducing the amount of microbubbles using the ultrasound waves.

Ultrasound transducer element arrays using acoustic ensonification drive patterns via a patient interface for sonosensitizer activation in sonodynamic therapy. Incoherent acoustic field generation varying phase, frequencies, and/or amplitude via controlled delivery of low intensity planar acoustic waves. Method includes generating a first and a second signal to generate respective acoustic ensonification drive patterns with phase, frequency, and amplitude and generating at least one relative phase, frequency or amplitude difference to generate a third incoherent acoustic ensonification pattern to activate a sonosensitizer. Calibration and complementary therapy procedures to improve cell susceptibility of cells to sonodynamic therapy are disclosed.