Finding the bubbles in therapeutic ultrasound—For better or for worse

Abstract

Cavitation has played a variety of roles in therapeutic ultrasound since the field began. Bubble activity has been seen as both a harmful side effect and the means to the therapeutic end. Throughout this range, the monitoring of bubble activity has been an important goal for numerous reasons including safety considerations, progression of treatment, and determining therapeutic efficacy. Methods of cavitation monitoring have been summarized in various contexts including the ASA effort led by Wesley Nyborg, PhD that generated the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) S1.24 TR-2002 (R2007) entitled ANSI Technical Report—Bubble Detection and Cavitation Monitoring. More recently a six-part virtual series, The Detecting, Mapping, and Quantifying Bubble Activity in Therapeutic Ultrasound workshop (https://www.fusfoundation.org/posts/bubble-activity-in-therapeutic-ultrasound-workshop-series/) was held in 2021, sponsored by The Focused Ultrasound Foundation, in partnership with the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine’s Future Fund. A summary was released as a white paper. This presentation will provide an introduction to the field of bubble and cavitation detection and monitoring and a summary of this most recent workshop and associated follow-on efforts.