High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation is a noninvasively treatment for benign thyroid nodules that are causing distress to patients. Brian H. H. Lang, MD, Clinical Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Hong Kong, and chief of the Division of Endocrine Surgery at Queen Mary Hospital, is a preeminent investigator, proponent, and pioneer of this technique. He…
Treatment of central nervous system diseases and tumors is often hindered by the blood-brain barrier. A new method aims to overcome this obstacle using focused ultrasound intranasal delivery (FUSIN).
Functional ultrasound localization microscopy (fULM) captures the cerebral activity at the micron-scale, opening up major future clinical perspectives for the diagnosis of cerebrovascular pathologies.
Researchers have developed an ultrasound-guided cancer immunotherapy platform that generates systemic antitumor immunity and improves the therapeutic efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade.
A research team in Spain and the US has created 3D-printed acoustic holograms to improve the treatment of diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, among others.
Noninvasive sound technology breaks down liver tumors in rats, kills cancer cells and spurs the immune system to prevent further spread.
UK researchers have found that a new type of ultrasound scan can diagnose most prostate cancer cases with good accuracy in a clinical trial involving 370 men.
Children's National Hospital successfully performed the first-ever high-intensity focused ultrasound surgery on a pediatric patient with neurofibromatosis. This is the youngest patient to undergo HIFU treatment in the world.
In experiments using saliva samples from COVID-19 patients, the gum, which contains the ACE2 protein, neutralized the virus.
Focused ultrasound waves create microbubbles in a fluid – a phenomenon called cavitation. In a current study, this process is used to destroy liver tumors and metastases. In this Medica-tradefair.com interview, Prof. Maciej Pech talks about testing cavitation events generated during histotripsy, explains the process, and reveals its advantages.
A recent preclinical study from scientists at Sunnybrook Research Institute, Canadian Blood Services and the University of Toronto has demonstrated that focused ultrasound improves the delivery of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg), a blood product composed of antibodies from healthy donors, previously shown to have potential in treating a subgroup of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
Focused ultrasound waves help researchers at ETH Zurich to deliver drugs to the brain only to where their effect is desired. This method is set to enable treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders and tumours with fewer side effects in the future.
Doctors are using microbubbles and ultrasound to treat heart attacks – deploying these traditional diagnostic tools in an attempt to reopen tiny blood vessels, reduce scar size and restore heart function, according to a study described at a medical conference in Chicago. “This study shows for the first time that microbubbles can be used to both diagnose and treat small vessel obstructions…
Contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) has proved in trials to be more accurate than computed tomography and MRI and can help eliminate the need for unnecessary biopsies and surgery. Dr Richard Barr, Professor of Radiology at Northeast Ohio Medical University, explains the benefits of the modality.
Confidently scanning patients varying in size is one of the main difficulties in ultrasound imaging. With their new system Acuson Sequoia, Siemens Healthineers respond to this challenge. We spoke with Thomas Hartley, Senior Director of Global Marketing and Communication for Ultrasound at Siemens Healthineers, about the new device which aims to tackle some of the most pressing challenges in…
Taking a biopsy of a brain tumor is a complicated and invasive surgical process, but a team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis is developing a way that allows them to detect tumor biomarkers through a simple blood test. Hong Chen, a biomedical engineer, and Eric C. Leuthardt, MD, a neurosurgeon, led a team of engineers, physicians and researchers who have developed a…
In April 2016 CEUS received the USA’s FDA approval. This year‘s RSNA Samsung Symposium ‘Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound (CEUS): Innovations and a Problem-Solving Tool in Clinical Practice’ provided an opportunity to take stock. For European Hospital, Professor André Clevert, Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Ultrasound at University Hospital Munich, Germany, describes the current…
Bracco Imaging S.p.A., a global leader in diagnostic imaging, announced that it has initiated new experimental activities in its R&D Center in Geneva, Switzerland, to explore a new application for gas-filled microbubbles in the development of personalized gene therapy for treatment of chronic dysfunctional diseases related to lipid metabolism. Microbubbles have already revolutionized medical…
Stopping abdominal wall bleeding with contrast-enhanced ultrasound was just one of the exciting developments in CEUS presented at the Bubble Conference 2017 in Chicago. When you cut your finger you apply pressure to the wound until the bleeding stops. Professor Dirk-André Clevert from the Institute for Clinical Radiology at the Ludwig Maximilian University Hospital, Munich, Germany, remembered…
Bracco Imaging S.p.A., a company in the diagnostic imaging business, announced today that its contrast agent SonoVue (sulphur hexafluoride microbubbles) is the first ultrasound contrast agent to obtain approval in the European Union for its use in ultrasonography of the urinary tract for the evaluation of suspected or known vesicoureteral reflux in pediatric patients.
Illuminating blood vessels, opening the blood-brain barrier and delivering drugs. What will be the next big thing that tiny microbubbles can do?
Contrast enhanced ultrasound is part of clinical routine and makes a substantial contribution towards increasing the significance of tissue and organ diagnosis with ultrasound for difficult cases.
The view across the Atlantic – it fills Professor Fabian Kiessling, Chair of Experimental Molecular Imaging at the RWTH Aachen (Rhine-Westphalia Institute of Technology Aachen), with optimism. The USA offers more opportunities for molecular imaging. Only recently, new tracers for Alzheimer’s were accepted as reimbursable in some centres, whilst the development of new diagnostics in Europe…
In the USA, some patients have bled to death while in the CT scanner because this type of examination takes too long for blunt abdominal trauma diagnosis. Report: Chrissanthi Nikolakudi
At Bracco Suisse SA in Geneva all efforts are dedicated to contrast media for ultrasound scans. During their visit to the firm’s research centre and manufacturing site, Daniela Zimmermann and Ralf Mateblowski met with François Tranquart MD PhD, general manager of the Bracco Suisse research centre, to hear why SonoVue is now Europe’s most popular ultrasound contrast agent, with research…
Adding micro-bubbles to the blood lights up the body for ultrasound scanners. Non-invasive, non-toxic and low-cost, these examinations present a disruptive, readily accessible technology for diagnosing disease. John Brosky reports
World of Ultrasound met Prof. Ioan Sporea, Prof. Gebhard Mathis and Prof. Byung Ihn Choi to ask them three questions.
Although many new features in US-guided interventions are being marketed, which are really necessary, which just nice-to-have? It’s a question to be faced by experts during the refresher course ‘Interventional ultrasound’ at WFUMB 2011. One of the most established ultrasound techniques in minimally invasive procedures is contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) – a tool that is safe, gentle…
Contrast agents have opened up entirely new possibilities are taking shape for ultrasound, above all in oncology. Following the publication of guidelines on the clinical use of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) by the European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (EFSUMB) in 2004 and 2008, at this year’s World Ultrasound Congress, WFUMB and EFSUMB will present joint…
Medical imaging has recently advanced so rapidly that it should halt. Applying more power to computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners is becoming too dangerous for patients and healthcare workers. Magnets for the next-generation MRIs are so powerful that they must be moved to a separate building on hospital campuses, while CT radiation levels have risen to alarming…
Muscular diseases belong to a heterogeneous group with various causes like neurogenic, metabolic, dystrophic, or inflammatory mechanisms as well as channelopathies leading to disorders of the muscle cell membrane potential. In most progressive disease cases the result is a focal or general muscle weakness that, unfortunately, is a very unspecific symptom. Standard neuromuscular literature…
‘Like the original Ode to the Liver, by Pablo Neruda, I too hope not to be betrayed by my liver. At least, not today!’
Philips leads the €15.9 million project to develop image-guided localized drug delivery technologies that could significantly impact the treatment of cancer and cardiovascular disease. The goal is to maximize therapeutic efficiency and minimize side effects of treatments for cancer and cardiovascular disease. The hope is that this level of control will also provide a means of tailoring the…
An ultrasound imaging technique that picks up early evidence of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) currently missed in conventional tests has been developed by researchers* at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).
High frequency ultrasound (US) techniques continue to improve with better resolution and exquisite B Mode imaging, particularly with improved compounding techniques seen with the Aplipure+ product. However, particular focus has been on improving techniques for breast imaging and one distinctly novel idea is to highlight microcalcifications within tissues.
USA - 3-D ultrasound technology developed at Duke University provides images of the brain vessels in real-time, which could be miniaturised in coming years for use in ambulances. In an initial pilot study, the system has passed the proof-of-principle.
High frequency ultrasound (US) techniques continue to improve with better resolution and exquisite B-Mode imaging, particularly with improved compounding techniques seen with the Aplipure product.
Tiny lipid-shelled microbubbles injected in vessels may serve as an new ultrasound contrast agent to evaluate microvascular blood flow. By this microbubbles US-researcher devised a ultrasound imaging technique that can spot early signs of PAD.
Stroke treatment is a question of time. The faster the cerebral infarct can be diagnosed, the less the brain will be damaged. But unfortunately it is not always easy to get the patient to a brain scanner within the required three-hour window. Real-time 3D ultrasound might bring the solution, according to researchers from the Duke University in Durham, NC.
A new research collaboration to study the potential of microbubbles and ultrasound to treat ischemic strokes has been established between ImaRx Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutal company in Tucson, Arizona, and the Philips' Medical Systems division in Andover, Massachusetts.
By Shahram Vaezy, Associate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Washington, Washington, Seattle, and Vesna Zderic, Assistant Professor at Electronic and Computer Engineering Department at George Washington University, Washington DC.
The introduction of a new generation of microbubbles has created opportunities for ultrasound, and this is particularly true in the liver, where study of the arterial, venous and sinusoidal phases with an agent such as SonoVue at low ultrasound power levels (Iow mechanical index, MI) provides unique information. Similar diagnostic advantages can be obtained in diseases of the kidneys, spleen and…
Vascular Recognition Imaging (VRI) is a low MI broadband colour Doppler method that images the interactions of Sonovue with microbubbles in a non-destructive manner as perfusion images of a quality never before achieved. The perfusion image represents the low velocities of unmoving or barely moving microbubbles as green-coded tissue perfusion, while the higher velocities of the veins and arteries…
Over the last years Toshiba has actively participated in the development of Contrast Harmonic Imaging. Around 1996 one of the first agents that became available on the European market was Levovist TM (Schering AG, Berlin, Germany). This was a galactose-based contrast agent. Levovist could be used as a Doppler signal enhancer throughout the entire vascular system. With the development of these…
Ultrasound contrast agents (USCA) or echo enhancers consist of minute gas containing microbubbles that have a high reflectivity when exposed to an ultrasound field. The history of USCA started in the mid of the 1960s. The cardiologist Joyner performed echo cardiography during the injection of saline solution into the aortic root via a catheter. During the injection he observed bright signals on…
Dr Hanns-Joachim Weinmann, Diagnostics and Radiopharmaceuticals, Magnetic Resonance Imaging & X-Ray Research, Schering AG, examines what is feasible and what still lies only at a tantalising distance.