EFFECT OF BLOOD PERFUSION ON THE ABLATION OF LIVER PARENCHYMA WITH HIGH-INTENSITY FOCUSED ULTRASOUND

This paper discusses the effect of blood perfusion on the ablation of rat liver tissue with high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU). For this study a practical method has been developed, in which the liver blood flow can be reduced by ligation of the hepatic artery and portal vein. During the treatment the rat liver was mobilized out of the abdomen and the blood flow was measured using both the radioactive microsphere method and a laser Doppler blood-flow monitor. The results show that the hepatic blood flow was about 23 ml/100 g min-1 via the hepatic artery and about 227 ml/100 g min-1 via the portal vein. The total liver blood flow was reduced by 98% when both the hepatic artery and portal vein were ligated. Comparative lesions were made on the same liver lobes of rats with both normal and reduced blood flow using a focused ultrasound beam of 1.7 MHz, 67-425 W cm-2 spatially averaged focal intensity I(SAL) and 2-20 s exposure duration. A marked difference has been found between the lesion dimensions obtained with normal blood flow and that with reduced blood flow. For exposures at 169 W cm-2 the lesion diameter with normal blood flow was reduced by 14% for 3 s exposure duration compared to that obtained with both hepatic artery and portal vein ligated, while the reduction was more than 20% for longer durations.