Xia Wu
Ph.D. Candidate
M.Sc.
Research Interests
High temperature thermal therapy using focused ultrasound beams is a non-invasive
procedure to destroy solid tumours. The simplest way to generate the focused ultrasound
beam is to employ a single geometrically focused transducer crystal. The focus,
which is only 1-3 mm wide, can only be used to heat small volumes of tissue
for each exposure. Consequently, a
long treatment time is required to destroy a whole tumour. This limits the
clinical application of ultrasound thermal therapy. Specially designed acoustic
lenses, when placed in front of the transducer crystal, can be used to produce
a beam with multiple foci. Theoretical studies conducted in our laboratory
have demonstrated that the use of such a lens can significantly increase the
volume of tissue being heated and thereby shorten the treatment time. A prototype
of such a system is currently under development.
X. Wu, M.D. Sherar, Theoretical
Evaluation of Moderately Focused Spherical Transducers and Multi-Focus Acoustic
Lens/Transducer Systems for Ultrasound Thermal Therapy, Physics in
Medicine and Biology 47: 1603-21, 2002.
X. Wu, A.E. Worthington, J.W. Hunt, M.A. Jewett, M.D. Sherar, Development of Novel Multi-Focus Acoustic Lens Transducer Systems for Ultrasound Thermal Therapy, 59th Annual Congress of the Canadian Association of Physicists, Winnipeg, Canada, June 2004.
Contact
Princess Margaret Hospital, Room 8-324
610 University Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
CANADA M5G 2M9
Phone: (416) 946-4501 x5767
Fax: (416) 946-2086
e-mail: wuxia@uhnres.utoronto.ca
Last updated: July 15, 2004