Assembly for heat treatment of biological tissues
Abstract
The invention concerns an assembly for heat treatment of a region of a biological tissue ( 410 ) comprising energy-generating means ( 100 ) to supply energy to the region; means ( 200 ) for measuring and recording spatial temperature distribution in said region; a control unit ( 300 ) comprising means for point-to-point digital processing of the temperature distribution in the region. The invention is characterised in that the energy-generating means comprise means( 110 ) for spatial and temporal distribution of the power available to them on said region, the control unit ( 300 ) comprising means ( 330, 350 ), based on the temperature distribution, for controlling the amount and distribution of energy supplied by the generating means ( 100 ).
Claims
exact text as granted — not AI-modified1 . An assembly for the heat treatment of a region of biological tissue ( 410 ) comprising:
energy-generating means ( 100 ) to supply energy to the region, means ( 200 ) for measuring and recording the spatial temperature distribution in said region, control unit ( 300 ) comprising numerical processing means for the point-by-point processing of the spatial temperature distribution in the region, characterized in that the energy-generating means comprise means ( 110 ) for spatially and temporally distributing the power that they apply to the aforesaid region, the control unit ( 300 ) comprising means ( 330 , 350 ) for, on the basis of the temperature distribution, controlling the amount and distribution of the energy supplied by the generating means ( 100 ).
2 . The heat treatment assembly as claimed in claim 1 , characterized in that the control unit ( 300 ) further comprises means ( 340 ) for estimating the energy losses in the region of the tissue ( 410 ) on the basis of an estimate of the thermal conductivity and of the spatial temperature distribution in the region and its surroundings.
3 . The heat treatment assembly as claimed in one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the control unit ( 300 ) comprises processing means ( 330 , 350 ) to take account of the thermal conductivity at each point in the region.
4 . The heat treatment assembly as claimed in claim 3 , characterized in that the control unit ( 300 ) comprises means ( 320 ) for measuring the temperature at each point of a plurality of points sampling the region and at regular time intervals and to deduce therefrom an estimate of the change in temperature as a function of thermal conductivity from one point of the spatial sample to another.
5 . The heat treatment assembly as claimed in one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the energy-generating means ( 100 ) emit focused ultrasound.
6 . The heat treatment assembly as claimed in one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the means ( 200 ) for measuring and recording the spatial temperature distribution comprise a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus.
7 . The heat treatment assembly as claimed in one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the amplitude pw of the power to be supplied at a point {right arrow over (r)} at an instant t+Δt is calculated using a relationship of the type:
pw
=
Tp
(
r
→
,
t
+
Δ
t
)
-
FT
-
1
(
T
*
(
k
→
,
t
)
-
k
2
D
Δ
t
)
FT
-
1
(
α
1
-
-
k
2
D
Δ
t
Dk
2
S
*
(
k
→
)
)
where Tp({right arrow over (r)},t+Δt) is the reference temperature at that point at the moment t+Δt, FT −1 is an inverse Fourier transform, T*({right arrow over (k)},t) is the Fourier transform of the temperature measured at the moment t, D is the heat diffusion coefficient for the tissue, α is the energy absorption coefficient for the tissue, S*({right arrow over (k)}) is the Fourier transform of the spatial distribution of the applied energy S({right arrow over (r)}).
8 . Heat treatment assembly according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the energy-generating means ( 100 ) comprise energy sources of the ultrasound, laser, microwave or radiofrequency type.Join the waitlist — get patent alerts
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