Gaetano Barbato
Programme
Aim of the course is to learn the basic aspects and the technical problems posed by pre-clinical and clinical applications of therapeutic ultrasounds and the up-to-date physical and engineering solutions adopted in the currently available devices.
Main Topics Covered:
a) Basic notions on physics of ultrasound propagation
b) Basic notions on the transducers emitting ultrasound
c) Pre-clinical applications:
i) cells: type of experiments, technical problems posed by plasticware interferences, thermostatation, demand on transducers duty cycle, divergence of propagation. Diffraction/reflection patterns. Engineering solutions to the specific technical problems.
ii) in-vivo animal models: aiming the organ, ultrasound wavelet propagation problems, technical problems posed by the in-vivo animal target tissue layers, type of transducers, type of experiments. Engineering solutions to the specific technical problems.
d) Clinical applications, humans:
i) Aiming the organ: HIFU vs MRgFUS, steering and phase control of ultrasound emission, deposited acoustic energy monitoring.
ii) Temperature mapping by Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
iii) Body: technical problems posed by applications: uterine fibroids, bone, prostate, thyroid, breast, tumor targeting. Engineering solutions to the specific technical problems.
iv) Brain: technical problems posed by applications: Essential tremor, Parkinson, Blood Brain Barrier opening. Engineering solutions to the specific technical problems.