Method and system for mri-based targeting, monitoring, and quantification of thermal and mechanical bioeffects in tissue induced by high intensity focused ultrasound

A method comprising:

• applying high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) histotripsy to a mass of biological material in order to mechanically fractionate a target volume of biological material within the mass;
• concurrently with applying the HIFU histotripsy to the mass of biological material, acquiring one or more magnetic resonance (MR) mechanical-metric renderings of the mass of biological material in a region including the target volume;
• identifying in at least one of the one or more acquired MR mechanical-metric renderings features corresponding to HIFU-histotripsy-induced displacement of the biological material within the mass;
• and
• based on the identified features in the at least one of the one or more acquired MR mechanical-metric renderings, monitoring a spatial location within the mass of biological material of a focal point of the HIFU histotripsy.

An apparatus comprising:

• a high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) histotripsy subsystem;
• a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) subsystem;
• one or more processors;
• memory accessible to the one or more processors, and storing machine language instructions that, upon execution by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to carry out operations including:
• applying HIFU histotripsy to a mass of biological material in order to mechanically fractionate a target volume of the biological material within the mass,
• concurrently with applying the HIFU histotripsy to the mass of biological material,
• (a) acquiring MRI data of the mass of biological material in a region including the target volume,
• identifying in the acquired MRI data features corresponding to HIFU-histotripsy-induced mechanical fractionation of the biological material within the mass, and
• based on the identified features in the acquired MRI data, monitoring spatial and temporal progress of HIFU-histotripsy-induced mechanical fractionation of the biological material within the target volume;
• and/or
• (b) acquiring with the MRI subsystem one or more magnetic resonance (MR) mechanical-metric renderings of the mass of biological material in a region including the target volume,
• identifying in at least one of the one or more acquired MR mechanical-metric renderings corresponding to HIFU-histotripsy-induced displacement of the biological material within the mass
• based on the identified features in the at least one of the one or more acquired MR mechanical-metric renderings, monitoring a spatial location within the mass of biological material of a focal point of the HIFU histotripsy.

A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, upon execution by one or more processors of an apparatus, cause the apparatus to carry out operations, wherein the apparatus comprises a high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) histotripsy subsystem and a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) subsystem, and wherein the operations include:

• applying HIFU histotripsy to a mass of biological material in order to mechanically fractionate a target volume of the biological material within the mass;
• concurrently with applying the HIFU histotripsy to the mass of biological material,
• (a) acquiring MRI data of the mass of biological material in a region including the target volume;
• identifying in the acquired MRI data features corresponding to HIFU-histotripsy-induced mechanical fractionation of the biological material within the mass;
• and
• based on the identified features in the acquired MRI data, monitoring spatial and temporal progress of HIFU-histotripsy-induced mechanical fractionation of the biological material within the target volume;
• and/or
• (b) acquiring with the MRI subsystem one or more magnetic resonance (MR) mechanical-metric renderings of the mass of biological material in a region including the target volume;
• identifying in at least one of the one or more acquired MR mechanical-metric renderings features corresponding to HIFU-histotripsy-induced displacement of the biological material within the mass;
• and
• based on the identified features in the at least one of the one or more acquired MR mechanical-metric renderings, monitoring a spatial location within the mass of biological material of a focal point of the HIFU histotripsy.