OBJECTIVE Current drug treatment for atrial fibrillation is suboptimal and percutaneous catheter-based ablation techniques may be associated with complications. The aim of this study is to assess the cost-effectiveness of (1) high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)-assisted surgical ablation, (2) the classic 'cut and sew' maze procedure and (3) percutaneous ablation, all concomitant to cardiac...

High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is a minimally invasive therapy modality in which ultrasound beams are concentrated at a focal region, producing a rise of temperature and selective ablation within the focal volume and leaving surrounding tissues intact. HIFU has been proposed for the safe ablation of both malignant and benign tissues and as an agent for drug delivery. Magnetic resonanc...

This report evaluates the effect of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) on subcutaneous murine neuroblastoma C1300. HIFU treatment was administered with a focused 4-MHz quartz transducer with a peak intensity of 550 W/cm2. In experiment 1, 60 animals with tumor were divided into four groups. Group I (n = 15) were controls; group II (n = 15) received adriamycin, 5 mg/kg intraperitoneally; g...

The aim of this article is to analyze factors affecting sonication dose and build a dosimetry model of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation for uterine fibroids. Four hundred and three patients with symptomatic uterine fibroids who underwent HIFU were retrospectively analyzed. The energy efficiency factor (EEF) was set as dependent variable, and the factors possibly affecting sonic...

A target tissue can be thermally coagulated in high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment noninvasively. HIFU thermal treatments have been clinically applied to various solid tumors. One of the problems in HIFU treatments is a long treatment time. Acoustically driven microbubbles can accelerate the ultrasonic heating, resulting in the significant reduction of the treatment time. In this...

HIFU is used in the treatment of cancer (prostate, breast) and uterine fibroma but not yet in TNs. This case report describes the first successful ablation of a toxic TN with HIFU. TSH and radioiodine scan normalization were achieved without complications and maintained for 18 months. HIFU treatment is a minimally invasive technique that may be an effective safe alternative to radioiodine or su...

The potential impact of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) to general medicine and oncology seems very high. However, while in the research area, the development of this technique is very rapid and unchallenged. The direct application of HIFU to human tumour therapy is hampered by various technical difficulties, which may confine its role to a marginal device in the surgery armamentarium....

Collateral damage and long sonication times occurring during high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation procedures limit clinical advancement. In this reserarch, we investigated whether the use of magnetic nano-particles (mNPs) can reduce the power required to ablate tissue or, for the same power, reduce the duration of the procedure. Tissue-mimicking phantoms containing embedded thermoc...