Impact of preconditioning pulse on lesion formation during high-intensity focused ultrasound histotripsy.

Therapeutic applications with high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) fall into two classifications-one using thermal effect for coagulation or ablation while generally avoiding cavitation and the other using cavitation-mediated mechanical effects while suppressing heating. Representative of the latter, histotripsy uses HIFU at low duty factor to create energetic bubble clouds inside tissue to liquefy a region and has the advantages in real-time monitoring and lesion fidelity to treatment planning. We explored the impact of a preconditioning/heating pulse on histotripsy lesion formation in porcine muscle samples.