The Development Of Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Treatment

Focused ultrasound is a new developing non-invasive therapy technique. Due to the block effect of skull and lack of effective monitoring method, the intracranial use of focused ultrasound used to be greatly limited. With current development of phased-array configuration, the focus distortion caused by the non-uniform thickness of skull has been solved, so that the accuracy and stabilize of the focus can be guaranteed. The technique of MRI also provide a reliable guidance for the treatment of transcranial FUS. Especially MR thermometry can be used as an effective monitor for tissue ablation. FUS has a broad prospect in curing brain tumor and some functional disease for its character of non-invasion, which is different from traditional surgery. At present, numerous basic experiments and clinical trials have proved its efficacy and security. FUS combined with microbubbles can target to open the blood-brain barrier reversibly, safely and non-invasively, which makes a significant enhancement of drug concentration in brain tissue. This enhancement will provide a good platform for the intracranial treatment such as chemical chemotherapy, gene therapy, immunotherapy and stem cell therapy. Besides, FUS also has a great potential in some other fields including cerebrovascular diseases. This paper reviews the recent development of transcranial focused ultrasound technique in curing central nervous system diseases, and its promising applications are also illustrated.