Facet joint pain - Low back pain that originates in the facet joints is a major clinical problem, causing pain and immobility, especially in the elderly. Patients who need more than the short-term relief provided by physical therapy, medications and therapeutic facet injections can undergo radiofrequency rhizotomy, a noninvasive surgical procedure that uses heat to destroy nerve endings. Researchers in the United Kingdom and Japan are now investigating if MR-guided focused ultrasound is a more effective approach to facet joint ablation. During the symposium, they will report initial patient treatment results.

Essential tremor - The field of MR-guided focused ultrasound was ignited last year by news that Swiss researchers had successfully used the noninvasive technology to treat patients in an area of the body most difficult to access - the brain. The landmark study has paved the way for clinical trials addressing a broad spectrum of brain disorders, including Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, epilepsy, brain tumors, and stroke. In addition to providing long-term follow-up data for the Swiss study, the symposium will offer a preview of the first follow-on patient study: a multicenter clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of MR-guided focused ultrasound in treating medically-refractory essential tremor. The new study will be a precursor to treating Parkinson's disease.


Ground-breaking research
Blood-brain barrier disruption - The impermeability of the blood brain barrier (BBB) has made pharmacological treatment of brain disorders a daunting, if not impossible, task. That may soon change, thanks to the work of Nathan McDannold, Ph.D., and his colleagues at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. At the symposium, they will report preliminary findings of a preclinical safety study in which localized, transient disruption of the BBB was achieved in using bursts of MR-guided focused ultrasound and microbubbles. They will also discuss results of another preclinical study in which the same approach was used to deliver chemotherapy across the BBB to tumors associated with metastatic breast cancer.

Ischemic stroke - Clot-busting drugs like tPA may no longer be necessary if the research being performed by Thilo Hoelscher, M.D. of the University of California, San Diego proves successful. He will report first results of an in vivo study using transcranial MR-guided focused ultrasound to noninvasively break up ("lyse") stroke-causing blood clots and restore blood flow in the brain.

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