Bioacoustics Research Lab
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | The Department of Bioengineering  Friday, March 29th, 2024
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Image-Guided HIFU Therapy

Lawrence A. Crum, Ph.D.

Principal Physicist and Chair of the Department of Acoustics and Electromagnetics
Applied Physics Laboratory
Research Professor of Bioengineering and Electrical Engineering
University of Washington
Seattle, WA

When High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) at megahertz frequencies and kilowatt intensities is applied to animal tissue, absorption can result in focal temperatures that exceed 70 oC within a few seconds. These high temperatures result in protein denaturization and coagulative necrosis, with the result that bleeding in the capillary bed and within small vessels is rapidly terminated. Additionally, if HIFU is applied to tears or cuts in large vessels, a combination of acoustic streaming and sound absorption can lead to acoustic hemostasis also in a few seconds. We have examined the application of this phenomenon to trauma care and non-invasive surgery and find that it has many promising attributes. We shall present a general review of our work in this area as well as our most recent results and their clinical implications.

Biography

Dr. Lawrence A. Crum is currently Principal Physicist and Chair of the Department of Acoustics and Electromagnetics in the Applied Physics Laboratory, and Research Professor of Bioengineering and Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington. He has held previous positions at Harvard University, the U. S. Naval Academy and the University of Mississippi, where he was F. A. P. Barnard Distinguished Professor of Physics and Director of the National Center for Physical Acoustics. He has published over 180 articles in professional journals, presented over 200 papers at professional meetings, and holds an honorary doctorate from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles. He is Past President of the Acoustical Society of America and current President of the Board of the International Commission for Acoustics. In June of 2000, he was awarded the Helmholtz-Rayleigh Interdisciplinary Silver Medal of the Acoustical Society of America.



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