World First: Ultrasound Used to “Jump-Start” Patient’s Brain out of a Coma
A 25-year old man has made incredible progress after doctors “jump-started” his brain out of a coma using ultrasound. The team asserts that further study is needed to determine how effective this ultrasound technique really is, but they have high hopes.
more at link……..
Postpocelipse said:
World First: Ultrasound Used to “Jump-Start” Patient’s Brain out of a ComaA 25-year old man has made incredible progress after doctors “jump-started” his brain out of a coma using ultrasound. The team asserts that further study is needed to determine how effective this ultrasound technique really is, but they have high hopes.
more at link……..
Tamb said:
Postpocelipse said:
World First: Ultrasound Used to “Jump-Start” Patient’s Brain out of a ComaA 25-year old man has made incredible progress after doctors “jump-started” his brain out of a coma using ultrasound. The team asserts that further study is needed to determine how effective this ultrasound technique really is, but they have high hopes.
more at link……..
Hope for Michael Schumacher?
There is a nice thought. :)
Michael is out of a coma and has been for 2 years now.
Divine Angel said:
Michael is out of a coma and has been for 2 years now.
Until he’s driving he is only semi-conscious.
Postpocelipse said:
World First: Ultrasound Used to “Jump-Start” Patient’s Brain out of a ComaA 25-year old man has made incredible progress after doctors “jump-started” his brain out of a coma using ultrasound. The team asserts that further study is needed to determine how effective this ultrasound technique really is, but they have high hopes.
more at link……..
That’s … a worry.
Too low a power in the ultrasound and it does nothing.
Too high a power in the ultrasound and the resulting localised high temperatures (above boiling) and pressures cause serious damage.
From links
> low-intensity focused ultrasound pulsation. The researchers targeted the thalamus with low-intensity focused ultrasound pulsation. The treatment made use of sonic stimulation to stir up the neurons in the thalamus—the brain’s focal center for processing information.
> The 1990s saw an increased interest in the use of focussed ultrasound (FUS) for several practical applications: use of high intensity HIFU for ablation, stroke thrombolysis, and peripheral nerve blocking. Interest increased with the discovery that FUS can be used also to open the blood brain barrier (BBB), and deliver drugs to the brain focally. Disrupting the BBB with US could be done with or without use of a contrast agent that enhances the cavitations at lower power of ultrasonic application. Disruption of the BBB at lower powers was usually reversible, and accompanied only by minimal evidence for apoptosis and ischemia. Although disruption of the BBB opens another chapter in direct drug delivery to specific areas within the brain.
> Shorter duration pulses of low intensity US seem to activate, whereas longer pulses seem to inhibit, the amplitude and velocity of nerve action potentials. Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Pulsation (LIFUP).
> That device, about the size of a coffee cup saucer, creates a small sphere of acoustic energy that can be aimed at different regions of the brain to excite brain tissue. For the new study, researchers placed it by the side of the man’s head and activated it 10 times for 30 seconds each, in a 10-minute period. It emits only a small amount of energy — less than a conventional Doppler ultrasound.
Picture of device focussed on the thalamus inside the brain.
mollwollfumble said:
From links> low-intensity focused ultrasound pulsation. The researchers targeted the thalamus with low-intensity focused ultrasound pulsation. The treatment made use of sonic stimulation to stir up the neurons in the thalamus—the brain’s focal center for processing information.
> The 1990s saw an increased interest in the use of focussed ultrasound (FUS) for several practical applications: use of high intensity HIFU for ablation, stroke thrombolysis, and peripheral nerve blocking. Interest increased with the discovery that FUS can be used also to open the blood brain barrier (BBB), and deliver drugs to the brain focally. Disrupting the BBB with US could be done with or without use of a contrast agent that enhances the cavitations at lower power of ultrasonic application. Disruption of the BBB at lower powers was usually reversible, and accompanied only by minimal evidence for apoptosis and ischemia. Although disruption of the BBB opens another chapter in direct drug delivery to specific areas within the brain.
> Shorter duration pulses of low intensity US seem to activate, whereas longer pulses seem to inhibit, the amplitude and velocity of nerve action potentials. Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Pulsation (LIFUP).
> That device, about the size of a coffee cup saucer, creates a small sphere of acoustic energy that can be aimed at different regions of the brain to excite brain tissue. For the new study, researchers placed it by the side of the man’s head and activated it 10 times for 30 seconds each, in a 10-minute period. It emits only a small amount of energy — less than a conventional Doppler ultrasound.
Picture of device focussed on the thalamus inside the brain.
Did you see that the medical profession had to tell people not to perform deep brain stimulation on themselves at home
Divine Angel said:
Michael is out of a coma and has been for 2 years now.
I didn’t know that.
Cymek said:
Did you see that the medical profession had to tell people not to perform deep brain stimulation on themselves at home
Glad they did. The difference between ineffective and deadly is dangerously small for this procedure. It’s not like X-raying yourself, which is practically harmless by comparison. Sort of like as dangerous as DIY surgery.