Patent ID: 9682255
Date: 2017-06-20
CPC Classifications: A61B,A61N

Claim:
1. A medical apparatus comprising: a high intensity focused ultrasound system configured to generate focused ultrasonic energy for sonicating a treatment volume of a subject; a signaling device configured to enable the subject to generate a discomfort signal during the sonication of the treatment volume; a memory containing machine executable instructions; a processor for controlling the medical apparatus, wherein execution of the instructions causes the processor to receive a set of sonication points, wherein the set of sonication points contains coordinates of locations within the treatment volume, wherein at least one of the set of sonication points is identified as a test location; wherein execution of the instructions causes the processor to control the medical apparatus to perform the following for each sonication point of the set of sonication points: determine if the sonication point is the test location; perform a test sonication of the sonication point using the high intensity focused ultrasound system if the sonication point is the test location; test repeatedly for the discomfort signal from the signaling device during the test sonication; sonicate the sonication point if the sonication point is not a test location or if the discomfort signal was not detected; and abort the sonication if the discomfort signal was detected.