Apparatus is provided for ablating cardiac tissue of a subject. The apparatus comprises an inflatable element, configured to be transthoracically placed within a pericardial region of the subject and a reflection-facilitation element, configured to deliver a fluid to the pericardial region, such that a portion of the fluid is disposed within the inflatable element, and another portion of the fluid is disposed outside of the inflatable element and inside the pericardial region. The apparatus additionally comprises at least one ultrasound transducer, configured to be transcatheterally placed in a heart chamber of the subject, and to apply ultrasound energy such that at least a portion of the applied energy is reflected by the fluid. Other embodiments are also described.

An external ultrasound generating treating device (12) to induce spinal cord and/or spinal nerve treatment comprises at least two sub-arrays of ultrasound generating treatment transducers, a left sub-array (20iL) being located on a left lateral side and a right sub-array (20iR) being located on a right lateral side of the central longitudinal axis (Ai). The device comprises a support structure (32) having at least one module (34i) comprising a left lateral section (34iL) and a right lateral section (34iR). The support structure (32) maintains, in use of the device, a constant distance and a constant relative angular orientation around the central longitudinal axis (Ai) between the first left and first right treatment transducers or set of treatment transducers (20iL, 20iR). Also disclosed is an apparatus including the external ultrasound generating treating device (12) and methods of its use.

A method to apply a nerve inhibiting cloud surrounding a blood vessel includes creating a treatment plan, wherein the treatment plan prescribes application of the nerve inhibiting cloud towards at least a majority portion of a circumference of a blood vessel wall, and applying the nerve inhibiting cloud towards the majority portion of the circumference of the blood vessel wall for a time sufficient to inhibit a function of a nerve that surrounds the blood vessel wall.

An extending portion of a vibration transmitting unit. is capable of transmitting ultrasonic vibration from a proximal side to a distal side, and in the extending portion, a second component provided on the distal side with respect to a first component. A third component provided between the first component and the second component in the extending portion has a third cross-sectional area that is larger than a first cross-sectional area of the first component and is smaller than a second cross-sectional area of the second component, and one of vibration anti-nodes is positioned at third component by the extending portion vibrating at a frequency in a predetermined frequency range.

Embodiments of a dermatological cosmetic treatment and/or imaging system and method adapted for dithering ultrasound beams from a transducer to alter placement and position of one or multiple cosmetic treatment zones in tissue, simultaneous multi-focus therapy using multi-channel signal mixing, and/or dithering ultrasound beams from a transducer to alter placement and position of one or multiple cosmetic treatment zones in tissue, configured for using imaging for improved ultrasound therapy efficacy, and/or adapted for imaging with multiple focal zone sequencing and triggering for mechanically translated and/or steered ultrasound transducers are provided herein. The system can include a hand wand, a removable transducer module, and a control module. In some embodiments, the cosmetic treatment system may be used in various cosmetic procedures.

The present disclosure is directed to a precision ultrasound scanner for imaging, for example, the prostate in a way that produces a superior image of the prostate while removing the iatrogenic risk and patient discomfort associated with other methods of providing an ultrasound image of the prostate. The present disclosure describes an apparatus and method for forming a high precision image of the prostate from outside the patient's body wherein the resolution in sufficient to image, for example, cancerous lesions on the surface of the prostate. To achieve such images, coded excitation, tissue harmonic imaging, advanced transducers operating in the 10 MHz to 40 MHz range is used to achieve a useable signal-to-noise reflection while being able to position the imaging transducer as close as possible to the prostate without risk or discomfort to the patient. The present disclosure further discloses an imaging transducer and an irradiating therapeutic transducer can be mounted such that they are movable between a plurality of positions. The irradiating transducer is, for example, about a 12 MHz transducer with a focal length of about 20 mm to about 40 mm that would produce a strong second harmonic at about 24 MHz that could be used for imaging. The imaging transducer has, for example, a focal length of about 10 mm to about 20 mm and typically operates in the range of about 25 MHz to about 40 MHz.

Embodiments of a dermatological cosmetic treatment and/or imaging system and method adapted to alter placement and position of multiple (e.g., two or more) cosmetic treatment zones in tissue from ultrasound beams from a transducer, simultaneous multi-focus therapy at multiple depths, and/or dithering ultrasound beams from a transducer to alter placement and position of multiple cosmetic treatment zones in tissue. The system can include a hand wand, a removable transducer module, and a control module. In some embodiments, the cosmetic treatment system may be used in various cosmetic procedures.

A method and system for treating a desired volume of tissue using HIFU or other energy modality includes ablating a pattern of elemental treatment volumes each having a volume that is greater than that of the focal zone of the HIFU transducer but smaller than the overall volume of the desired treatment volume. In at least one embodiment, the elemental treatment volumes are arranged to form a shell which partially or wholly encapsulates the desired volume of tissue, which then necroses in situ. The elemental treatment volumes are created by distributing HIFU energy in multiple doses with repeated passes of the focal zone of the HIFU transducer in a trajectory over or along a perimeter of each elemental treatment volume.

Apparatus and methods for creating tissue necrosis include an energy delivery apparatus that can be positioned adjacent a target treatment site such as a vessel without direct contact with the treatment site tissue. Collimated energy is then directed to the vessel to create necrotic regions in the tissue. Exemplary use in renal vessels creates necrotic regions in adjacent nerves which can alleviate hypertension in a patient.

A method of changing the volume of an intra-bilayer membrane space of at least one bilayer membranous structure of a target tissue. The method comprises providing at least one characteristic of a target tissue having at least one bilayer membranous structure, selecting an acoustic energy transmission pattern set to change a volume of an intra-bilayer membrane space of a bilayer membrane of the at least one bilayer membranous structure according to the at least one characteristic, and applying acoustic energy on the target tissue according to the selected acoustic energy transmission pattern.