High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is a minimally invasive medical procedure which has shown considerable potential for a variety of therapeu­ tic applications. Some of the medical applications of HIFU include thermal ablation of tumors and uterine fibroids, vessel cauterization, thrombolysis, drug delivery, and gene activation (Curra and Crum [1]). HIFU ablation, unlike other minimally i...

Acoustic energy transfer is a promising energy harvesting technology candidate for implantable biomedical devices. However, it does not show competitive strength for enabling self-powered implantable biomedical devices due to two issues - large size of bulk piezoelectric ultrasound transducers and output power fluctuation with transferred distance due to standing wave. Here we report a microele...

The aim of this study was to explore the use of a contrast agent to study the effects of exposure to ultrasound, in combination with microbubbles, on liposome-mediated transfection of genes into human prostate cancer cells. A contrast agent was used to study the effects of ultrasound exposure in combination with microbubbles on liposomes, which tr...

Objective(s) Sonodynamic therapy is a physical treatment which utilizes ultrasound waves with an appropriate sensitizer such as protoporphyrin IX (PpIX). The activation of sensitizer depends on cavitation, and therefore, high intensity ultrasound is an important necessity. Beside, high intensity ultrasound can induce side effects on the healthy tissues which have surrounded tumor. The particle...

Image segmentation is one of the earliest and most important stages of image processing and plays an important role in both qualitative and quantitative analysis of medical ultrasound images but ultrasound images have low level of contrast and are corrupted with strong speckle noise. Due to these effects, segmentation of ultrasound images is very challenging and traditional image segmentation m...

The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) is a multidisciplinary association dedicated to advancing the safe and effective use of ultrasound in medicine through professional and public education, research, development of guidelines, and accreditation. To promote this mission, the AIUM is pleased to publish this AIUM Practice Guideline for the Use of Ultrasound to Guide Vascular Ac...

An experimental feasibility study of using ultrasound to accomplish the dificult desorption of phenol from activated carbon and polymeric resin adsorbents is discussed. The desorption rates of activated carbon were found to significantly increase by ultrasound at 40 kHz and 1.44 MHz. Attrition of the activated carbon due to cavitation could be prevented by operating at a higher frequency and wi...

The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) is a multidisciplinary association dedicated to advancing the safe and effective use of ultrasound in medicine through professional and public education, research, development of parameters, and accreditation. To promote this mission, the AIUM is pleased to publish this AIUM Practice Parameter for the Performance of Selected Ultrasound-Gui...

~IMAGE ANALYSIS AND PRENATAL SCREENING ITAN'ANLUAN Information obtained from ultrasound images of fetal heads is often used to screen for various types of physical abnormality. In particular, at around 16 to 23 weeks' gestation two-dimensional cross-sections are examined to assess whether a fetus is affected by Neural Tube Defects, a class of disorders that includes Spina Bifida. Unfortunately,...

This study investigates the optimal external parameters for using an ultrasound applicator for treating bone tumors. This system utilized spherically arranged applicators such as scanned focused ultrasound, and spherically focused multielement applicators. The power deposition pattern is modeled as geometric gain with exponential attenuation. The specific absorption rate ratio (SARR) criteria h...