2nd International Symposium on Therapeutic Ultrasound

描述（由申请人提供）： 虽然医学超声作为诊断模式是众所周知的，但使用高强度聚焦超声（HIFU）进行治疗的概念是在半个多世纪前提出的，其粗略的努力是治疗脑部疾病。 不幸的是，由于治疗指导的局限性，没有大规模的尝试将这项技术商业化。 然而，在过去的10年中，许多国家已经做出了雄心勃勃的努力来开发HIFU方法和设备以止血（声学止血）和治疗疾病，例如良性前列腺肥大（BPH）、子宫肌瘤和各种形式的癌症。 此外，中等声强的超声波已被证明是成功的细胞膜的瞬时开放，这刺激了最近的研究声孔，超声波激活的药物输送，和基因治疗使用超声波作为载体。 这种兴趣导致了最近两次国际会议的组织：2000年4月在日本福冈举行的第一届声动力学治疗国际会议和2001年5月在中国重庆举行的第一届HIFU治疗国际研讨会。 这些会议的内容令人兴奋，引起了人们的兴趣，但西方科学家、工程师和临床医生的参与率很低。 已计划将这些会议联合收割机合并为第二届国际超声治疗研讨会，将于2002年7月30日至8月1日在华盛顿州西雅图举行。 本次会议将提供一个讨论最新研究和临床结果的论坛，同时也是一个汇集科学家，工程师，临床医生，政府资助机构代表，行业领导者和私人投资者的机会，以查看这项新技术的临床和商业潜力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although medical ultrasound is well known as a modality for diagnosis, the concept of using High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) for therapy was suggested over a half-century ago, with crude efforts made a treating diseases of the brain. Unfortunately, due to limitations in therapy guidance, no wide-scale attempts were made to commercialize this technology. In the last 10 years, however, ambitious efforts have been undertaken in a number of countries to develop HIFU methods and devices to stop bleeding (acoustic hemostasis) and to treat diseases, such as Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy (BPH), uterine fibroids, and various forms of cancer. In addition, ultrasound at moderate acoustic intensities has been shown to be successful in the transient opening of cellular membranes, which has spurred recent research in sonoporation, ultrasound-activated drug delivery, and gene therapy using ultrasound as a vector. This interest has resulted in the organization of two recent International Conferences: The First International Conference on Sonodynamic Therapy, held in Fukuoka, Japan, in April of 2000, and the First International Symposium on HIFU Therapy, held in Chongqing, PRC, in May of 2001. These conferences were exciting in their content, and attracted much interest, but were poorly attended by Western scientists, engineers and clinicians. Plans have been made to combine these conferences into the 2nd International Symposium on Therapeutic Ultrasound, to be held in Seattle, WA, from 30 July-1 August 2002. This conference will provide a forum for the discussion of recent research and clinical results, but also as an opportunity to bring together scientists, engineers, clinicians, government funding agency representatives, industry leaders, and private investors to view the clinical and commercial potential for this new technology.