17 - Therapeutic ultrasound with an emphasis on applications to the brain

Abstract

Diagnostic and therapeutic ultrasound have their roots in studies targeting applications to the brain from the 1920s and 1930s, with a heyday in the 1950s. There has been a significant resurgence over recent decades in applications of diagnostic and therapeutic ultrasound to the central nervous system. This chapter provides a review of how ultrasound interacts with tissue, followed by diagnostic ultrasound highlighting issues relevant to therapeutic applications, then a summary imaging the peripheral nervous system and brain. Therapeutic ultrasound is discussed: concepts, extensions or enhancements of concepts useful for diagnostic ultrasound, followed by a summary of recent advances, with a review of recent work, on neuromodulation with ultrasound.