Rapid motion correction in MR-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound heating using real-time ultrasound echo information.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of integrating real-time ultrasound echo guidance in MR-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) heating of mobile targets in order to reduce latency between displacement analysis and HIFU treatment. Experiments on a moving phantom were carried out with MRI-guided HIFU during continuous one-dimensional ultrasound echo detection using separate HIFU and ultrasound imaging transducers. Excellent correspondence was found between MR- and ultrasound-detected displacements. Real-time ultrasound echo-based target tracking during MR-guided HIFU heating is shown with the dimensions of the heated area similar to those obtained for a static target. This work demonstrates that the combination of the two modalities opens up perspectives for motion correction in MRI-guided HIFU with negligible latency.