Method and apparatus for providing non-invasive ultrasound heating of the ...

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(12) United States Patent

Voorhees et al.

(io) Patent No.: (45) Date of Patent:

US 7,044,960 B2 May 16, 2006

(54) METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR

PROVIDING NON-INVASIVE ULTRASOUND
HEATING OF THE PREOPTIC ANTERIOR
HYPOTHALAMUS

(75) Inventors: Marc E. Voorhees, Arvada, CO (US);

Gary A. Carson, Golden, CO (US)

(73) Assignee: Medivance Incorporated, Louisville, CO (US)

( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 184 days.

(21) Appl. No.: 10/666,902

(22) Filed: Sep. 17, 2003

(65) Prior Publication Data

US 2005/0060012 Al Mar. 17, 2005

(51) Int. CI.

A61F 7/00 (2006.01)
A61B 18/04 (2006.01)

(52) U.S. CI 607/96; 606/27; 606/28

(58) Field of Classification Search 607/96;

606/27-31; 601/2 See application file for complete search history.

(56) References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS

WO WO 99/07314 8/1998

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Dr. Malcolm C. Brown; "Ultrasound Diathermy Apparatus"; Medical Dictionary 2000 (1 Page).

Kullervo Hynynen; "Focused Ultrasound Surgery Guided by MRI"; Sep./Oct. 1996—vol. 3, No. 5, Copyright (C) 1996 by Science & Medicine, Inc. (15 Pages). Ajit Mai, Feng Feng, Michael Kabo, Jeffrey Wang; "Interaction of High Intensity Focused Ultrasound with Biological Materials"; SPIE'S NDE and Smart Structures Symp., Paper 4702-40, San Diego, CA, Mar. 2002 SPIE Copyright (C) 2002 (9 Pages).

(Continued)

Primary Examiner—Roy D. Gibson

(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Marsh Fischmann & Breyfogle LLP

A method and system is provided to induce mild hypothermia in a patient through controlled heating of the preoptic anterior hypothalamus (POAH) in conjunction with cooling of patient's body. The system employs an ultrasound transducer that may be positioned extracorporeally to a patient skull for emitting ultrasound energy to the POAH. The ultrasound energy heats the POAH to inhibit thermoregulatory responses of the body such that a cooling means may more effectively cool bodily tissue in order to reduce a patient's core body temperature. Feedback sensors may be positioned at various locations on the patient in order to monitor the patient's core body temperature. A control apparatus included with the system controls the amount of heat the POAH receives and the amount of cooling the body receives based on the feedback signals from the sensors.

44 Claims, 9 Drawing Sheets

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Zweifler, Alday, Voorhees, Carson; "A Novel Method to
Induce Mild Hypothermia Via Surface Cooling"; American
Academy of Neurology 2000; May 5, 2000.
Trembly, Hoopes, Moodie, Carson, Voorhees, Boulant;
"Hypothalamus Warming for Ischemia Protection"; Pro-
ceedings of the International Symposium on Biomedical
Optics; Jan. 20, 2001.

Ter Haar; "High Intensity Focused Ultrasound for the Treat-
ment of Tumors"; Echcardiography; vol. 18, No. 4, 2001.
Kirkham, Padayachee, Parsons, Seargeant, House, Gosling;
"Transcranial Measurement of Blood Velocities in the Basal
Cerebral Arteries Using Pulsed Doppler Ultrasound: Veloc-

ity as an Index of Flow"; Ultrasound in Med. & Biol, vol. 12, No. 1, 1986.

Clement, Hynynen; "A Non-Invasive Method for Focusing Ultrasound Through the Human Skull"; Physics in Medicine and Biolog, vol. 47, 2002.

Clement, Hynynen; "Correlation of Ultrasound Phase with Physical Skull Properties"; Ultrasound in Med. & Biol., vol. 28, No. 5, 2002.

Aubry, Tanter, Pernot, Thomas, Fink; "Experimental Demonstration of Noninvasive Transskull Adaptive Focusing Based on Prior Computed Tomography Scans"; J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 113, Jan., 2003.