Abstract: Systems and methods for treating target tissue include generating a priming sequence of sonication pulses for delivering acoustic energy to the target tissue; pausing generation of the sonication pulses for a delay interval; and generating a series of treatment sequences of sonication pulses for delivering acoustic energy to the target tissue, the treatment sequences having sonication intervals therebetween and the delay interval being larger than the largest sonication interval by a predetermined factor.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: Various approaches for computationally characterizing tissue in an anatomic target region include generating multiple sonications to transient acoustic reflectors at or proximate to the target region; measuring reflection signals of the sonications off the transient acoustic reflectors; based on the measurements, identifying the reflection signals originating from single transient acoustic reflectors; and based at least in part on the identified reflection signals, generating a digital map including a tissue characteristic.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: Systems and methods for performing magnetic resonance (MR) thermometry include a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) unit and a controller in communication with the MRI unit and configured to cause the MRI unit to acquire one or more baseline phase images of an imaging region and one or more treatment phase images of the imaging region subsequent to a temperature change of a subregion within the imaging region, electronically generate a thermal map pixelwise indicating the temperature change of the subregion based at least in part on the acquired baseline phase image and treatment phase image, computationally predict the temperature change of the subregion based at least in part on energy deposited in the subregion during treatment without reference to the generated thermal map, and determine whether the thermal map is inaccurate based at least in part on the temperature change of the subregion indicated by the thermal map and the predicted temperature change of the subregion.

Abstract: Systems and methods for performing magnetic resonance (MR) thermometry include a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) unit and a controller in communication with the MRI unit and configured to cause the MRI unit to acquire one or more baseline phase images of an imaging region and one or more treatment phase images of the imaging region subsequent to a temperature change of a subregion within the imaging region, electronically generate a thermal map pixelwise indicating the temperature change of the subregion based at least in part on the acquired baseline phase image and treatment phase image, computationally predict the temperature change of the subregion based at least in part on energy deposited in the subregion during treatment without reference to the generated thermal map, and determine whether the thermal map is inaccurate based at least in part on the temperature change of the subregion indicated by the thermal map and the predicted temperature change of the subregion.