HIFUtk: visual analytics for high intensity focused ultrasound simulation

Magnetic Resonance-guided High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (MR-HIFU) is a novel and non-invasive therapeutic method. It can be used to locally increase the temperature in a target position in the human body. HIFU procedures are helpful for the treatment of soft tissue tumors and bone metastases. In vivo research with HIFU systems poses several challenges, therefore, a flexible and fast computer model for HIFU propagation and tissue heating is crucial. We introduce HIFUtk, a visual analytics environment to define, perform, and visualize HIFU simulations. We illustrate the use of HIFUtk by applying HIFU to a rabbit bone model, focusing on two common research questions related to HIFU. The first question concerns the relation between the ablated region shape and the focal point position, and the second one concerns the effect of shear waves on the temperature distribution in bone. These use cases demonstrate that HIFUtk provides a flexible visual analytics environment to investigate the effects of HIFU in various type of materials.