CONTRIBUTION TO THERAPEUTIC ULTRASOUND. BRIEF OVERVIEW
L.R. Gavrilov
Acoustics Institute, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: lrgavrilov@gmail.com
Below is a short list of contributions to therapeutic ultrasound made with my participation.
 1971. Research on the use of HIFU for local ablation of deep brain structures was initiated in the
Soviet Union. (Together with the Brain Institute, Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR).
 1972-1973. The possibility of ablating deep brain structures through an intact human skull by
focused ultrasound was demonstrated for the first time using the Schlieren method.
 1973-1974. First quantitative measurements of cavitation thresholds in living brain tissues of
animals were performed. Ultrasound doses that corresponded to purely thermal and purely
cavitational mechanisms of tissue ablation were determined. (With the Brain Institute,
Moscow).
 1972-1973 and further. A novel method of stimulating neural structures of humans and animals
by focused ultrasound was proposed. It was shown for the first time that single stimuli with short
duration and relatively high intensity focused ultrasound, directed at the human skin, cause
various types of sensations: tactile, thermal (heat or cold), various types of pain, etc. (With the
Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry, Leningrad - IEPhB).
 1973-1975. It was shown that irradiation of transplantable tumors in mice with low-intensity
ultrasound at a certain time before gamma-irradiation noticeably increased the sensitivity of
tumor cells to the action of ionizing radiation. (With the All-Union Oncological Scientific Center).
 1977. Localised ablation of deep brain structures through an intact skull was shown in
experiments on human cadavers. (With the 1-st Moscow Sechenov Medical Institute).
 1982. A method of diagnosing neurological and hearing diseases was developed and tested in
clinics. (With IEPhB and the Leningrad Research Institute of Ear, Throat, and Nose).
 1985. The use of focused ultrasonic receivers for remote measurements of temperature rise in
biological tissues, cavitation thresholds, and acoustic field distributions was shown.
 1996-1997. A novel miniature optical fiber probe for measurements of the intensity of MHfrequency ultrasound, and increments of temperature was designed and tested. (With the
University of Kent and Imperial College, London, UK).
 1996-1997. Intracavitary linear phased array for transrectal prostate surgery was designed and
fabricated. (With the Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College, London).
 2000 and further. A new design of multi-element 2-D therapeutic arrays with random
distribution of their elements was proposed and fabricated. (With the Imperial College, London).
 2010. HIFU-ablation of liver by sonication through the rib cage using a 2-D therapeutic random
phased array was demonstrated. (With the Department of Acoustics, Moscow State University
(MSU), Russia).
 2011-2013. Method of measuring the intensity of acoustic fields using a digital infrared camera
was proposed and tested. (With NPL, Teddington, UK and MSU).
 2016-2017. Possibility of reaching high-amplitude shocks at the focus of an ultrasound beam
when irradiating through the skull in brain tissue was demonstrated in simulations. (With
Laboratory of Industrial and Medical Ultrasound (LIMU) at MSU).
 2014-2019. Methods for designing high-density and fully populated random 2D ultrasound
phased arrays were developed. (With LIMU-MSU).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Supported by RFBR, RSF, NIH, ISTU, and EUFUS.