治療用超音波的歷​​史

治療用超音波的發現可追溯到1950年代，Frank 與 William Fry 兄弟發現高頻率聲波可產生無法追蹤路徑的局部組織傷害，這個發現甚至比診斷用超音波的發明還更早。然而經過三十年診斷用超音波、核磁共振掃描與電腦斷層影像的迅速發展，才真正讓非侵入性、影像導引的超音波治療成為可能。近年來的研究發現讓組織接受治療用強度的超音波，可產生許多正向的生物效應，例如血管阻斷、打破腦血管障蔽、活化藥物並增加細胞膜對分子的通透性。因此，治療用超音波未來的發展有賴工程師、物理學家、醫師、生物學家與生化學者的共同合作，以了解並找出將聲波能量適當的傳遞到組織並發揮特定作用的方法 -- 譯自國際治療用超音波學會網站簡介文。

治療用超音波研究室的研究方向

超音波輔助藥物遞送/基因轉殖

超音波打開腦血管障蔽

震波

空泡作用之生物效應

History of Therapeutic Ultrasound​

The discovery by Frank and William Fry in the early 1950's that high-frequency sound waves could be used to generate 'trackless', localized tissue damage greatly predated even the use of ultrasound as a diagnostic modality. However, the rapid advances in ultrasound, magnetic-resonance and computer tomography imaging over the last three decades have now provided the tools to make truly non-invasive, image-guided ultrasound therapy a clinical reality. In recent years, exposure of tissue to therapeutic levels of ultrasound has been shown to result in a rapidly expanding array of desirable biological effects, ranging from fast localized heating and tissue necrosis, to vascular occlusion, disruption of the blood-brain barrier, the activation of drugs and the increased permeability of cell membranes to molecules. As a result, the future of therapeutic ultrasound relies increasingly on engineers, physicists, clinicians, biologists and biochemists working together to identify and understand how to optimally deliver acoustic energy for specific applications. -- quoted from the ISTU (International Society of Therapeutic Ultrasound)​

Major research directions​

Ultrasound-facilitated drug delivery & gene transfer

BBB opening by ultrasound

Shockwave