Accounting for sliding motion in fast numerical simulations of abdominal HIFU applications for targets under respiratory motion

Non-invasive ablation and hyperthermia treatments of abdominal organs using High Intensity Focused Ultrasound(HIFU) still impose severe challenges. Especially for liver and kidney treatments, the target motion and accessibility over the entire respiratory cycle make the application of HIFU difficult. To allow for a safe, effective, and efficient treatment, detailed planning and monitoring of the intervention is needed. Current general-purpose physics simulation software cannot fulfill the real-time requirements of the therapy-monitoring application. Our goal is to improve this by numerical simulation to allow for fast and accurate treatment planning and real-time detection of motion-induced risks during HIFU-therapy.