An ultrasonic therapy system delivers ultrasonic therapy energy to a therapy site in the body which is infused with microbubbles. A system without an image guidance capability has an array transducer which delivers therapy energy, a therapy transducer driver which causes the array transducer to deliver therapeutic energy, a control for controlling the intensity of the therapeutic energy, and a display of the sonotherapy signal strength of the energy and the concentration of microbubbles at the therapy site. A system with ultrasonic imaging capability will display an ultrasound image for therapeutic guidance and a measure of the microbubble concentration. The method of the present invention is performed as an adjunct to a standard drug therapy or other treatment regimen, following such treatment with an infusion of ultrasound and delivery of ultrasound therapy energy.

Systems and methods for cavitation-guided opening of a targeted region of tissue within a primate skull are provided. In one example, a method includes delivering one or more microbubbles to proximate the targeted region, applying an ultrasound beam, using a transducer, through the skull of the primate to the targeted region to open the tissue, transcranially acquiring acoustic emissions produced from an interaction between the one or more microbubbles and the tissue, and determining a cavitation spectrum from the acquired acoustic emissions.

The present invention relates to an implantable ultrasound (US) generating device for implantation within the vertebral column of a vertebrate subject, wherein the implantable US generating device comprises at least one US generating transducer suitable for emitting US beam(s) with an oblique orientation with respect to a longitudinal axis of a vertebral column.

Combined methods for treating a patient using time-varying magnetic field are described. The treatment methods combine various approaches for aesthetic treatment. The methods are focused on enhancing a visual appearance of the patient.

Methods of employing oncolytic viruses and focused ultrasound, e.g., for focal delivery to the mammalian brain, are provided.

A method for ultrasound stimulation of musculo-skeletal tissue structures includes generating a plurality of acoustic spatial-temporal modes comprised of a sinusoidal-complex, wherein the sinusoidal-complex has a modulation envelope that enhances spatial-temporal measurement accuracy at a site of a multi-layered biological tissue structure, and a pulse repetition frequency and duty cycle that are osteogenic at the site of the multi-layered biological tissue structure, beam steering the acoustic spatial-temporal modes to the site of the multi-layered biological tissue structure to promote tissue healing, and producing bi-modal stress levels in the multi-layered biological tissue structure that are sufficient to generate bone fracture healing.

The present disclosure describes a method for detecting and treating a low grade malignant tissue in a subject, comprising administering 5-aminolevulinic acid or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or ester thereof, to the subject and measuring the fluorescence of the tissue.

Various approaches for enhancing treatment of target tissue using a source of focused ultrasound while limiting damage to non-target tissue include selecting a frequency of ultrasound waves transmitted from the source of focused ultrasound for generating a focus in the target tissue; providing microbubbles having the first size distribution such that at least 50% of the microbubbles have a radius smaller than a critical radius corresponding to a resonance frequency matching the selected frequency of ultrasound waves; and applying the ultrasound waves at the selected frequency to treat the target tissue.

Methods of employing non-oncolytic viruses or plasmids and focused ultrasound are provided. Specifically, the disclosure provides methods for ultrasound-mediated non-invasive delivery of gene therapy agents to the central nervous system, wherein magnetic resonance (MR) guided focused ultrasound is used, optionally in combination with microbubbles, to facilitate gene delivery to a particular region of the brain.

The invention pertains to a lipid-based microbubble stably binding a plurality of nucleic acids, and a method of delivering the microbubble and nucleic acids to a specific target site using ultrasound. The delivered nucleic acids create transgenic cells (i.e., for example, a transgenic tumor cell), wherein the transgenic cell expresses the proteins encoded by the delivered nucleic acids. This technology provides a significant improvement for microbubble-drug delivery platforms as known microbubble do not efficiently bind nucleic acids. The improvements described herein include but are not limited to identifying proper lipid proportionality ratios and/or cationic surfactant layers that provide an optimum mechanical index compatible with ultrasonics. Microbubble perfusion and/or nucleic acid delivery may be performed by a combination of imaging and ultrasound/microbubble targeted delivery to simultaneously perform low power two-dimensional imaging and high power microbubble destruction. Such systems are useful in therapeutics and/or diagnostics. For example, the data disclosed herein shows proof of principle in conjunction with the delivery of therapeutic siRNA molecules to slow tumor growth.