A blood vessel exposed to ultrasound: a mathematical simulation of the temperature field

In this article we present a mathematical simulation of the temperature field in and around a blood vessel when it is sonicated by a focused ultrasound beam. A simplified geometry is considered: a cylindrical blood vessel is embedded in tissue parallel to a flat skin surface. The ultrasound transducer is placed on the skin above the blood vessel, perpendicular to the skin surface. The 3D geometry of the problem is simplified by transformation, which maps the domain into a parallelepiped. A computational algorithm and computer program were developed. The simulation provides the conditions for successful occlusion of a blood vessel and demonstrates the significant role of the blood flow rate on the temperature difference between the vessel wall and the surrounding tissue. Comparing the predictions with published experimental data tested the validity of the method.