Patent ID: 8277398

Claim:
A method for applying heat from a position external to a patient to a region including a blood vessel wall internal to a patient, the method comprising: a. identifying a flow signal of the blood vessel; b. determining an initial position and orientation of the blood vessel relative to a therapeutic ultrasound transducer positioned external to the patient; c. determining the attenuation of an ultrasound beam propagated from the position external to the patient to the blood vessel; d. determining treatment parameters based on the attenuation of the ultrasound beam; e. delivering a dose of ultrasound to a nerve surrounding the blood vessel from the position external to the patient; f. determining a response of the dose delivery to the nerve surrounding the blood vessel based at least in part on a reaction of the patient; and g. generating converging ultrasound beams which originate at the position external to the patient and propagate to a position adjacent the wall of a blood vessel such that the blood vessel wall is incorporated into the focus of the ultrasound beams.