Friday, March 15, 2013

International HIFU Short Description

By Brown Jack


HIFU or High Intensity Focused Ultrasound refers to a medical procedure that is highly precise where high-intensity focused sonic energy is applied to locally heat and destroy damaged or diseased tissue by ablation. During this procedure temperature is used to treat diseases making it a hyperthermia therapy. It also involves an imaging procedure which helps in treatment planning and targeting before any ablative or therapeutic ultrasound energy is applied.

At times this procedure is known as MRgHIFU which in full stands for magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound. When some of the propagating acoustic wave is absorbed by tissue it is converted into heat. The beams can be focused to achieve a very tiny focus that penetrates deep into the tissue. The tissue is damaged by the temperature as well as the duration of time it is exposed to the energy wave.

Lynn et al reported the first non-invasive ablation investigations regarding this technique which were conducted in early 1940s. Additional extensive research was conducted by other scientists culminating in treatment of clinical neurological disorders. The complexity of the treatments as well as difficulty of noninvasive beam targeting resulted in few clinical trials in the past. Recent advancement with regard to ultrasound technology as well as medical imaging has made this technique to gain much popularity.

In 1994 the Sonablate 200 was approved by CE and was launched in Europe making it the first commercial machine ever developed courtesy of a certain American company. Comprehensive studies by practitioners regarding this device showed clinical efficacy in the destruction of prostatic tissue minus blood loss or long term side effects. This procedure has been approved by a couple of developed countries as a prostate cancer treatment.

High intensity focused ultrasound is a technology often considered promising within the non-invasive or medical technology segments of minimally invasive therapy. This therapy is unique because it has the capacity to generate precise and in-depth tissue necrosis through an external applicator without affecting the surrounding structures. This procedure is different from many other forms of focused energy like radio surgery or radiation therapy. The ultrasound energy that passes through intervening tissue does not have any cumulative effect on the tissue.

In case of partial treatment or the first procedure fails the procedure can be repeated because it has no cumulative tissue effects. When radiation therapy fails, the recurrence of prostate cancer can be treated using this therapy because it is a non-ionizing clean treatment. This treatment has been successfully known to treat cancer through the destruction of solid tumors that grow in different organs and parts of the body.

The palliative treatment of metastasis using this technique has been approved by CE because it has been found to offer palliative care. There are temperature sensitive cancer drug carriers known as liposomes that deliver the drug on targeted tumor sites and these can be activated using the high temperatures of this medical procedure. Additionally it is also used to temporarily open the blood brain barrier thus allowing a drug to be absorbed into the brain.

AF or atrial fibrillation is a common heart arrhythmia that can be treated using this procedure. There are also MRI guided treatment tests that have been done regarding liver tumor, breast fibroadenomas, breast cancer, uterine fibroids and bone metastases. Many uterine fibroids patients have been treated using HIFU.




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