In recent years, noninvasive thermal treatment by using high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) has high potential in tumor treatment. The goal of this research is to develop an ultrasound imaging-guided robotic HIFU ablation system for tumor treatment. The system integrates the technologies of ultrasound image-assisted guidance, robotic positioning control, and HIFU treatment planning. With the assistance of ultrasound image guidance technology, the tumor size and location can be determined from ultrasound images as well as the robotic arm can be controlled to position the HIFU transducer to focus on the target tumor. After the development of the system, several experiments were conducted to measure the positioning accuracy of this system. The results show that the average positioning error is 1.01 mm with a standard deviation 0.34, and HIFU ablation accuracy is 1.32 mm with a standard deviation 0.58, which means this system is confirmed with its possibility and accuracy.

Abstractmeso‐2,6‐Dichlorophenyltripyrrinone (TPN‐Cl2), a probe molecule for zinc II ions, is dispersed in a polymer host. The red fluorescence peak at 620 nm appears when the molecule forms a complex with zinc at its center. TPN‐Cl2 has a high selectivity for zinc II and tolerates many common metal ions present in the human body. The probe molecules are blended with a hydrogel polymer, poly(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (poly HEMA), with 30 wt% dimethylformamide (DMF). The fiber structure with 1 μm diameter is made by electrospinning in DMF solution of the probe and poly HEMA mixture. The fibrous film detects zinc ions with concentrations as low as 10−6 M in real‐time both in water and in the commonly used cell culture liquid media Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium (DMEM) and fetal bovine serum (FBS), which contain many metal ions and proteins. The time‐resolution is 5 min for 10−6 M and 1 min for 10−5 M. This sensitivity and response speed satisfy the requirements for non‐invasive biomedical studies.

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