Patent 7780598 was granted and assigned to Hitachi on August, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
In a sonodynamic treatment apparatus including: a first ultrasound radiating unit for radiating diagnostic ultrasound; a second ultrasound radiating unit for radiating treatment ultrasound; an echo detection unit for detecting an ultrasound echo; a diagnostic controller for radiating the diagnostic ultrasound with the first ultrasound radiating unit and detecting the ultrasound echo corresponding the diagnostic ultrasound; an echographic controller for processing an echographic image on the basis of the detected ultrasound echo; and a treatment controller for radiating the treatment ultrasound with the second ultrasound radiating unit, radiation of the treatment ultrasound with the second ultrasound radiating unit is controlled to have a predetermined exposure duration and a predetermined pause duration of the treatment ultrasound, and the echographic image is generated on the basis of the ultrasound echo during the pause duration of the treatment ultrasound exposure with the diagnostic image generator. The treatment ultrasound may be weakened after detection of a bubble generated by the treatment ultrasound.