Principles and Applications of Therapeutic Ultrasound in Healthcare introduces concepts, principles, construction, and applications of therapeutic ultrasound: from bench to bedside. A comprehensive examination of the industry and medical application of ultrasound therapy, this book highlights working principles, research progress, and system

Ultrasound has been widely used in diagnostic imaging for a long time. In the past 10 years, image-guided focused ultrasound therapy has seen rapid growth, in biomedical science and engineering, and in clinical medicine. The purpose of this book is to bring internationally renowned authorities and experts in this field together to provide up-to-date and comprehensive reviews of basic physics, biomedical engineering, and clinical applications of focused ultrasound therapy in a widely accessible fashion. Focusing on applications in cancer treatment, this book covers basic principles, practical aspects, and clinical applications of focused ultrasound therapy. It reviews the medical physics and bio-effects of focused ultrasound beams on living tissues, dosimetric methods and measurements, transducer engineering, image guidance and monitoring (including magnetic resonance imaging -- MRI -- and ultrasound), treatment delivery systems, and clinical applications. The book also gives practical guidelines on patient setup, target localisation, treatment planning and image-guided procedures for the treatment in various sites, including the prostate, liver, pancreas, breast, kidney, uterus, bone, and brain. The book discusses major challenges for the use of focused ultrasound energy on living tissues and explores the cellular and physiological responses that can be employed in the fight against cancer from biological, physics and engineering perspectives. It also highlights recent advances, including the treatment of solid tumours using image-guided drug delivery, and the exploitation of microbubbles, nanoparticles, and other cutting-edge techniques. Readers who are interested in learning more about the technique and the clinical applications described in each chapter can find more information in the comprehensive bibliographies provided. This book is suitable for anyone involved in, or looking to become involved in, the research and clinical applications of focused ultrasound therapy, including medical professionals, physicists, biomedical engineers, graduate students and others working in this multidisciplinary field. It offers a balanced and critical assessment of state-of-the-art technologies, major challenges, and an outlook on the future of focused ultrasound therapy. It presents a thorough introduction for those new to the field while providing helpful, up-to-date information and guidelines for readers already using this therapy in clinical and pre-clinical settings. Key Features: Brings together a wide range of world-leading experts in this new field, presenting the latest clinical outcomes of using focused ultrasound for the treatment of benign and malignant diseases Covers the fundamental physics of focused ultrasound therapy and ultrasound-mediated drug delivery, including chapters on the mechanism of sonoporation, microbubble and ultrasound interaction, and their potential clinical applications Introduces clinical guidelines for focused ultrasound therapy, including indications and contraindications, treatment goals, the selection of patients, clinical observation during treatment procedure and follow-up, and characteristics of image changes after treatment

The physical properties of ultrasound, particularly its highly directional beam behaviour, and its complex interactions with human tissues, have led to its becoming a vitally important tool in both investigative and interventional medicine, and one that still has much exciting potential. This new edition of a well-received book treats the phenomenon of ultrasound in the context of medical and biological applications, systematically discussing fundamental physical principles and concepts. Rather than focusing on earlier treatments, based largely on the simplifications of geometrical acoustics, this book examines concepts of wave acoustics, introducing them in the very first chapter. Practical implications of these concepts are explored, first the generation and nature of acoustic fields, and then their formal descriptions and measurement. Real tissues attenuate and scatter ultrasound in ways that have interesting relationships to their physical chemistry, and the book includes coverage of these topics. Physical Principles of Medical Ultrasonics also includes critical accounts and discussions of the wide variety of diagnostic and investigative applications of ultrasound that are now becoming available in medicine and biology. The book also encompasses the biophysics of ultrasound, its practical applications to therapeutic and surgical objectives, and its implications in questions of hazards to both patient and operator.

One of the first applications of ultrasound was in submarine sonar equip ment. Since then ultrasound has found increasing applications, particularly in industry, but increasingly in biomedicine. For many years ultrasound has been used in physical therapy, although only in the past decade or two has it evolved from laboratory curiosity to a well-established diagnostic imaging modality. Ultrasound is now a widely accepted, indeed pervasive, diagnos tic and therapeutic tool in the medical field, and its applications are increasing rapidly. Our intent in developing this book is to provide a coherent tutorial intro duction to the field of medical ultrasound at a level suitable for those en tering the area from either medical or scientific backgrounds. The topics discussed should be of interest to nearly all medical and health care per sonnel needing to understand or operate ultrasonic devices, including clini cians, medical technicians, physiotherapists, medical physicists, and other biomedical scientists interested in the field. The book opens with a description of the basic principles of propagating acoustic waves, explains how they interact with a wide range of biological systems, and outlines the effects they produce. To provide practical infor mation to operators of ultrasound equipment, we have included thorough coverage of the details of ultrasonic instrumentation and measurement techniques, and set forth the framework for an effective quality assurance program.

This volume contains the lectures presented at the International School of Radiation Damage and Protection at the "Ettore Majorana" Centre for Sci entific Culture in Erice, Italy, September 6-15, 1985. The sixth course of the School, entitled "Advances in Applications, Biological Effects, and Dosimetry of Ultrasound," provided an in-depth review of all facets of ultra sound interactions and their biological effects on living systems, allowing an assessment of the hazard potential of the various applications of ultra sound. Particular reference was made to possible health risks associated with medical ultrasound exposure since this use is by far the most prevalent. Since the initial application of ultrasound to submarine detection, medical diagnostic and therapeutic applications have become predominant over the past 20 years. The question of safety of this physical agent is an extremely important one. In many industrialized countries most pregnant women receive at least one diagnostic ultrasound examination before the birth of the child. Thus, potential hazards to the fetus are of prime concern. This problem has been aggravated by the fact that the medical diagnostic applications of ultrasound have far outpaced research efforts on biological effects. A further compounding factor of concern to clinicians and scientists has been the use of higher and higher intensities by the manufacturers of ultrasound equipment, particularly higher peak pulse intensities.

With contributions by internationally re-knowned authorities and experts in the field of ultrasonic imaging, this book provides comprehensive reviews on basic physical principles and applications of emerging and rapidly developing therapeutic techniques.In specific, reviews of mechanisms for bioeffects of ultrasound relevant to therapeutic applications, high intensity focused ultrasound and its application in surgery, ultrasound assisted target drug and gene delivery, as well as transdermal drug delivery are discussed.The book will be a useful reference source for graduate students, academics and researchers.

Ultrasonic imaging is an economic, reliable diagnostic technique. Owing to recent therapeutic applications, understanding the physical principles of medical ultrasonics is becoming increasingly important.a Covering the basics of elasticity, linear acoustics, wave propagation, nonlinear acoustics, transducer components, ultrasonic imaging modes, basics on cavitation and bubble physics, as well as the most common diagnostic and therapeutic applications, Fundamentals of Medical Ultrasonics explores the physical and engineering principles of acoustics and ultrasound as used for medical applications. a It offers students and professionals in medical physics and engineering a detailed overview of the technical aspects of medical ultrasonic imaging, whilst serving as a reference for clinical and research staff.

This book highlights advances and prospects of a highly versatile and dynamic research field: Therapeutic ultrasound. Leading experts in the field describe a wide range of topics related to the development of therapeutic ultrasound (i.e., high intensity focused ultrasound, microbubble-assisted ultrasound drug delivery, low intensity pulsed ultrasound, ultrasound-sensitive nanocarriers), ranging from the biophysical concepts (i.e., tissue ablation, drug and gene delivery, neuromodulation) to therapeutic applications (i.e., chemotherapy, sonodynamic therapy, sonothrombolysis, immunotherapy, lithotripsy, vaccination). This book is an indispensable source of information for students, researchers and clinicians dealing with non-invasive image-guided ultrasound-based therapeutic interventions in the fields of oncology, neurology, cardiology and nephrology.

Therapeutic ultrasound can be broadly defined as the application of ultrasound waves for biomedical purposes other than imaging. For imaging, the manner by which the ultrasound waves propagate is designed so that energy interactions with the tissue being imaged (or in the path of the waves on their way to the target or beyond) do not cause any undesired or harmful effects. Therapeutic ultrasound exposures, on the other hand, are specifically tailored for creating effects, where these can range from mild and reversible to more robust and irreversible, depending on the application. This book presents a detailed description of the different ultrasound mechanisms for producing bio-effects, and the manner by which the multitude of these interactions between the ultrasound energy and biological tissues can be employed for a host of therapeutic applications.