Background/introduction Non-invasive ablation and hyperthermia treatments of abdominal organs using High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) still impose severe challenges. Especially for liver and kidney treatments, the target motion and accessibility over the entire respiratory cycle make the application of HIFU difficult. To allow for a safe, effective, and efficient treatment, detailed plan...

This work demonstrates the feasibility of using high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for selective ablation of renal tissue through laparoscopic procedures. Two laparoscopic HIFU probe prototypes were developed and tested. Probe 1: It is a hand-held probe with no integrated ultrasound imaging capability. It consists of two focused rectangular HIFU piezoceramic crystals mounted on a stainles...

The elastographic visualization and evaluation of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)-induced lesions were investigated. The lesions were induced in vitro in freshly excised canine livers. The use of different treatment intensity levels and exposure times resulted in lesions of different sizes. Each lesion was clearly depicted by the corresponding elastogram as being an area harder than th...

Over the past 25 years, the average life expectancy for men has increased almost 4 years, and the age of prostate cancer detection has decreased an average of 10 years with diagnosis increasingly made at early-stage disease where curative therapy is possible. These changing trends in the age and extent of malignancy at diagnosis have revealed limitations in conventional curative therapies for p...

BACKGROUND High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) can achieve pulmonary vein isolation (PVI), but there are safety concerns after severe complications. Therefore, we evaluated an esophageal temperature (ET)-guided safety algorithm to apply HIFU safely. METHODS AND RESULTS After standard left atrial access, HIFU was repeatedly applied until PVI was complete. A safety algorithm was used: <or=...

Background: High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) can achieve pulmonary vein isolation (PVI), but there are safety concerns after severe complications. Therefore we evaluated an esophageal temperature (ET) guided safety algorithm in order to apply HIFU safely. Methods and Results: After standard left atrial access HIFU was repeatedly applied until complete PVI. Safety algorithm: 3 complete a...

The ideal treatment of localized cancer should directly cause an irreversible and complete death of tumor cells without damage to surrounding normal tissue. High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is such a potential treatment, which induces a complete coagulative necrosis of a tumor at depth through the intact skin. The idea that using an extracorporeal source of therapeutic ultrasound was in...

Over the past 25 years, the average life expectancy for men has increased by 4 years, and the age of prostate cancer detection has decreased an average of 10 years with diagnosis increasingly made at early-stage disease where curative therapy is possible. These changing trends in the age and extent of malignancy at diagnosis have revealed limitations in conventional curative therapies for prost...

BACKGROUND A noninvasive technique to monitor thermal lesion formation is necessary to ensure the accuracy and safety of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment. The purpose of this study is to ultrasonically detect the tissue change due to thermal coagulation in the HIFU treatment enhanced by cavitation microbubbles. METHODS An ultrasound imaging probe transmitted plane waves at a...

Methods Multiparametric MRI combined with both systematic and fusion biopsy is being utilized more frequently worldwide to select patients for focal therapy. The ability to effectively ablate prostate cancer with transrectal HIFU has been demonstrated by numerous publications to date. Early results from focal HIFU series suggest that side effect profiles such as stricture, erectile dysfunction,...