Abstract Background Acoustic cavitation plays an important role in the medical treatment using high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), but unnecessarily strong cavitation also could deform the morphology and enlarge the size of lesions. It is known that the increase of ambient hydrostatic pressure (P stat) can control the acoustic cavitation. But the question of how the decrease of P stat and dissolved oxygen concentration (DOC) influence the strength of cavitation has not been thoroughly answered. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship among the P stat, DOC and the strength of cavitation. Methods Ex vivo bovine liver tissues were immersed in degassed water with different DOC of 1.0 mg/L, 1.5 mg/L and 2.0 mg/L. Ultrasound (US) of 1 MHz and the spatial and temporal average intensity (I sata) of 6500 W/cm2 was used to expose two groups of in vitro bovine livers for 2 s; one group was under atmospheric pressure (P stat = 1 bar) and the other was under sub-atmospheric pressure (P stat = 0.1 bar). Acoustic cavitation was detected by a passive cavitation detector (PCD) during the exposure process. Echo signals at the focal zone of HIFU were monitored by B-mode ultrasound imaging before and after exposure. The difference between two pressure groups was tested using paired sample t-test. The difference among different DOC groups was evaluated by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results The results demonstrated a significant difference of broadband acoustic emissions from the cavitation bubbles, echo signals on B-mode image, morphology of lesions under various conditions of ambient pressure and DOC. The lesion volume in tissue was increased with the increase of ambient pressure and DOC. Conclusion Cavitation could be suppressed through sub-atmospheric pressure and low DOC level in liver tissue, which could provide a method of controlling cavitation in HIFU treatment to avoid unpredictable lesions.
