Patent ID: 9248318
Filing Date: 2016-02-02
CPC Classification: A61B,A61N

Claim Text:
1. A method of operating a high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) system to treat a target treatment site, the method comprising: transmitting two or more test signals into a tissue site, wherein two or more of the test signals are transmitted at different power levels at a fundamental frequency; detecting signals from an area of the tissue site, wherein the detected signals result from transmission of the two or more test signals into the tissue site; determining one or more response curves for the tissue site that indicate how a signal characteristic of the detected signals changes in response to the different power levels of the two or more test signals, wherein at least one of the response curves relates how energy in the test signals transfers from the fundamental frequency to one or more harmonics of the fundamental frequency with the different power levels of the test signals by comparing the energy of the detected signals at the fundamental frequency to the energy of the detected signals at the one or more harmonics using a computed ratio of the energy of the detected signals at the fundamental frequency to the energy of the detected signals at the one or more harmonics; using at least one of the determined response curves to select a treatment parameter of HIFU signals that will be used to treat the target treatment site; and applying HIFU signals with the selected treatment parameter to the target treatment site with the HIFU system.