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New Technology Combines Ultrasound, MRI Benefits

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Dec 30, 2008 8:00 pm US/Eastern

New Technology Combines Ultrasound, MRI Benefits

(KDKA) An ultrasound and an MRI are different screening tools used to detect health problems.

Now, new technology combining the two could end up treating them.

A procedure, called M-R-Guided Focused Ultrasound, uses heat and sound and it is non-invasive.

The patient lies on a special table in an MRI while doctors aim multiple beams of ultrasound energy to destroy the tumors.

"The principle is sound waves that will go through the normal tissue harmlessly, but they can be concentrated into a point where great heat is developed," said Dr. Paul Curtis, M.D., an interventional radiologist.

It's like using a magnifying glass to focus beams of sunlight to burn a hole in a newspaper -- a simple concept with the potential to treat a lot more than fibroids.

Doctor Andre Konski is testing the technology on patients who have pain from cancer that's spread to the bone.

"I think it's very promising to be able to use a non-invasive treatment to help patients in their last months and weeks of life," said Dr. Konski.

It works just like it did for fibroids, except this time doctors focus the ultrasound beams on the area of pain.

"The ultrasound destroys the nerve endings surrounding the bone so the bone can never, no longer feel the pain," said Dr. Konski.

So far, the results are promising. And so is the future of this up and coming technology.

"This has been called the best kept secret in medicine," said Dr. Neal Kassell, a neurosurgeon.

Dr. Kassell says focused ultrasound could one day treat a wide range of diseases.

"Brain tumors, kidney tumors, liver tumors, prostate, breast, pancreas," he said.

He thinks the new technology may even replace radiation therapy.

"You can only deliver a certain amount of radiation to a human without killing them," said Dr. Kassell. "There's much greater precision and accuracy in the use of this."

Future uses include destroying lesions in the brain that cause Parkinson's tremors and to treat and prevent a stroke.

"Both from a hemorrhage in the brain, dissolving that blood clot and allowing it to be drained, as well as, opening up blocked blood vessels and restoring blood flow," said Dr. Kassell.

For information about the MR-guided focused ultrasound technology:
InSightec, go to www.insightec.com.

Researchers are currently recruiting for a clinical trial on MR-guided focused ultrasound as a treatment for patients with pain from bone metastases. For information, go to: www.mycancerpain.org

More Information: 

 

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