Development and testing of a system for controlled ultrasound hyperthermia treatment with a phantom device.

Hyperthermia is the process of raising tissue temperatures in the range 40 - 45 °C for a prolonged time (up to hours). Unlike in ablation therapy, raising the temperature to such levels does not cause necrosis of the tissue but has been postulated to sensitize the tissue for radiotherapy. The ability to maintain a certain temperature in a target region is key to a hyperthermia delivery system. The aim of this work was to design and characterize a heat delivery system for ultrasound hyperthermia able to generate a uniform power deposition pattern in the target region with a closed-loop control which would maintain the defined temperature over a defined period. The hyperthermia delivery system presented herein is a flexible design with the ability to strictly control the induced temperature rise with a feedback loop. The system can be reproduced elsewhere with relative ease and is adaptable for various tumor sizes/locations and for other temperature elevation applications, such as ablation therapy. The system was fully characterized and tested on a newly-designed custom-built phantom with controlled acoustic and thermal properties and containing embedded thermocouples. Additionally, a layer of thermochromic material was fixed above the thermocouples and the recorded temperature increase was compared to the RGB (red, green, and blue) color-change in the material. The transducer characterization allowed for input voltage to output power curves to be generated, thus allowing for comparison of power deposition to temperature increase in the phantom. Additionally, the transducer characterization generated a field map of the symmetric field. The system was capable of increasing the temperature of the target area by 6 °C above body temperature and maintain the temperature to within ±0.5 °C over a defined period. The increase in temperature correlated with the RGB image analysis of the thermochromic material. The results of this work have the potential to contribute towards increasing confidence in the delivery of hyperthermia treatment to superficial tumors. The developed system could potentially be used for phantom or small animal proof-of-principle studies. The developed phantom test device may be used for testing other hyperthermia systems.