Feasibility of MR-temperature mapping of ultrasonic heating from a CMUT.

In the last decade, high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) has gained popularity as a minimally invasive and noninvasive therapeutic tool for treatment of cancers, arrhythmias, and other medical conditions. HIFU therapy is often guided by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which provides anatomical images for therapeutic device placement, temperature maps for treatment guidance, and postoperative evaluation of the region of interest. While piezoelectric transducers are dominantly used for MR-guided HIFU, capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) show competitive advantages, such as ease of fabrication, integration with electronics, improved efficiency, and reduction of self-heating. In this paper, we will show our first results of an unfocused CMUT transducer monitored by MR-temperature maps. This 2.51 mm by 2.32 mm, unfocused CMUT heated a HIFU phantom by 14 degrees C in 2.5 min. This temperature rise was successfully monitored by MR thermometry in a 3.0 T General Electric scanner.