Interstitial Ultrasound-guided High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (USgHIFU) therapy has the potential to deliver ablative treatments which conform to the target tumor. In this study, a robot-assisted US-navigation platform has been developed for 3D US guidance and planning of conformal HIFU ablations. The platform was used to evaluate a conformal therapeutic strategy associated with an interstitial dual-mode USgHIFU catheter prototype (64 elements linear-array, measured central frequency f = 6.5 MHz), developed for the treatment of HepatoCellular Carcinoma (HCC). The platform included a 3D navigation environment communicating in real-time with an open research dual-mode US scanner/HIFU generator and a robotic arm, on which the USgHIFU catheter was mounted. 3D US-navigation was evaluated in vitro for guiding and planning conformal HIFU ablations using a tumor-mimic model in porcine liver. Tumor-mimic volumes were then used as targets for evaluating conformal HIFU treatment planning in simulation. Height tumor-mimics (ovoid- or disc-shaped, sizes: 3–29 cm³) were created and visualized in liver using interstitial 2D US imaging. Robot-assisted spatial manipulation of these images and real-time 3D navigation allowed reconstructions of 3D B-mode US images for accurate tumor-mimic volume estimation (relative error: 4 ± 5%). Sectorial and full-revolution HIFU scanning (angular sectors: 88–360°) could both result in conformal ablations of the tumor volumes, as soon as their radii remained ≤ 24 mm. The presented US navigation-guided HIFU procedure demonstrated advantages for developing conformal interstitial therapies in standard operative rooms. Moreover, the modularity of the developed platform makes it potentially useful for developing other HIFU approaches.

间质超声引导的高强度聚焦超声（USgHIFU）治疗具有提供与靶标肿瘤相符的消融治疗的潜力。在这项研究中，已经开发了一种机器人辅助的美国导航平台，用于3D US指导和适形HIFU消融计划。该平台用于评估与间质性双模式USgHIFU导管原型（64元素线性阵列，测量的中心频率f  = 6.5 MHz）相关的保形治疗策略，该原型开发用于治疗肝细胞癌（HCC）。该平台包括一个3D导航环境，该环境与开放式研究型双模US扫描仪/ HIFU发生器和机械臂进行实时通信，机械臂上装有USgHIFU导管。在体外评估了3D US导航使用肿瘤模拟模型在猪肝中指导和规划适形HIFU消融。然后将模拟肿瘤的体积用作评估模拟中的适形HIFU治疗计划的目标。高度模仿肿瘤（卵形或盘状，大小：3–29 cm ³）是使用间质2D US成像在肝脏中创建和可视化的。机器人协助对这些图像进行空间操作，并进行实时3D导航，从而可以重建3D B模式US图像，以准确估算肿瘤模拟体积（相对误差：4±5％）。扇形和全旋转HIFU扫描（角扇形：88–360°）均会在半径小于等于24 mm时立即导致肿瘤体积的适形消融。提出的美国导航式HIFU手术证明了在标准手术室中开发保形间质疗法的优势。而且，开发平台的模块化使其对于开发其他HIFU方法具有潜在的帮助。