Measurement-based simulation in transcranial ultrasound therapies

Accurate characterization of acoustic fields and sources is fundamental to planning and evaluation of transcranial ultrasound therapies. This talk will present methods for characterizing both single-element transducers and complex multielement arrays operating at sub-MHz frequencies, which can give rise to additional measurement challenges. Comprehensive characterization of multielement arrays, particularly element positioning and interelement cross-talk, is particularly important when performing aberration correction and beam steering in transcranial applications. I will present a characterization of the performance of a custom pseudorandom multi-element array, and the simplified source definitions derived from the measured holograms that are used to simplify the practical implementation of transcranial targeting of focused ultrasound. Finally, I will discuss the use of these source definitions in measurement-based simulations for prediction of acoustic field propagation through the skull, with comparisons between experimental measurements and computational models.