Researchers develop ultrasound-based temperature tracking for treatment monitoring

Researchers at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) have developed an Ultrasound-based temperature tracking for treatment monitoring resulting in non-invasive treatment and real-time monitoring of the process.

The research team has been awarded the ‘SITARE – Gandhian Young Technological Innovation (GYTI) Appreciation 2020’ for this project. Researchers say the practical benefits of the technology in the healthcare field include non-invasive treatment and real-time monitoring of the process and safe to use as no exposure to ionising radiation is involved.

“Having multi-parametric image feedback allows for accurate real-time monitoring for a wide range of thermal therapies. These techniques can be incorporated as software in existing scanners by the manufacturers and thus does not require any special electronics hardware,” Prof. Arun K. Thittai, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT Madras, said.

Currently, the IIT Madras researchers have demonstrated the feasibility of the methods using experiments done on tissue-mimicking phantoms and ex-vivo tissue samples. They are now working to convert these proof-of-concept methods to design an integrated microwave applicator cum ultrasound-based real-time imaging feedback for a possible clinical application.

Although several ultrasound-based methods have been proposed in the literature for temperature tracking, mostly for HIFU-ablation, maps of changes in other properties at different temperature realm have not been exploited.

“IIT Madras Researchers have the advantage of having access to complete signal chain of raw ultrasound data, and not just the final ultrasound image, that allows us to develop methods for tracking multiple different tissue parameter maps,” the institute said.

The research has been undertaken at the biomedical ultrasound laboratory at IIT Madras. Established in 2014, it is focussed on developing advanced, yet affordable, ultrasound imaging systems.