MSc Thesis: Pre-Treatment Acoustic Verification Using a Therapeutic Ultrasound Array

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: CSW Therapeutics AB is a Swedish medical technology company developing non-invasive therapeutic soundwave technology. Reliable acoustic-based therapy requires both good coupling between the transducer and the patient and a suitable propagation path toward the intended treatment region. Air at the interface can strongly reflect ultrasound, while structures such as bone or gas-filled tissue may obstruct the acoustic path. This MSc thesis project will investigate whether a therapeutic ultrasound array can also be used as a low-energy sensing system before treatment, without requiring conventional diagnostic ultrasound imaging. The aim is to determine whether the system can assess two important conditions: (1) acoustic coupling quality at the transducer interface and (2) acoustic-window quality along the intended propagation path. The project builds on exploratory work at CSW, as well as previous student work investigating acoustic-window estimation from A-mode ultrasound data. The new project extends this work to a curved therapeutic-array geometry, introducing new challenges related to curvature, spatial sampling and interpretation of received signals. TARGET OF THE PROJECT: The overall target is to develop and experimentally evaluate methods for low-energy pre-treatment acoustic verification using the therapeutic transducer itself. The project will investigate whether measurements obtained before therapy can be transformed into robust and interpretable indicators of: 1. Coupling quality: Is the transducer adequately acoustically coupled? 2. Acoustic-window quality: Once coupled, is there a suitable propagation path toward the intended treatment region? The goal is not to generate conventional B-mode images, but rather to determine how much decision-relevant information can be extracted from therapy-oriented hardware with limited spatial sampling. The project will combine experimental ultrasound measurements, signal processing, quantitative analysis and method development. The exact experimental programme will be refined together with the KTH and CSW supervisors. Application email: ana.candela.celdran@cswtherapeutics.com.