The 2nd International MRgFUS Symposium: Current and Future Applications of MR-guided Focused Ultrasound
MRgFUS 2010: October 17 – 20, Washington DC
The 2nd International MRgFUS Symposium
Current and Future Applications of MR-guided Focused Ultrasound
Newswise — Clinicians, scientists, radiation physicists, biomedical engineers, administrators, payors, investors, manufacturers, foundations and government regulatory and funding agencies interested in the rapidly developing field of Magnetic Resonance guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) are invited to attend the 2nd International Symposium dedicated to its current and future applications.
MRgFUS 2010 will be of interest to a range of medical specialties including gynecologists, interventional radiologists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, oncological surgeons, pain management physicians, radiation oncologists, radiologists, and urologists.
The program will include lectures from invited speakers, oral presentations and posters, panel discussions, and commercial exhibits.
Topics will include:
- MRgFUS technology, current and future landscape
- Targeted drug delivery
- Sonothrombolysis
- Clinical Applications of MRgFUS
[INDENT] Including: bone, brain, breast, liver, prostate, uterine fibroids, and other tumors; stroke, Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.
- Reimbursement
- Training & credentialing
The full program for the 1st International MRgFUS Symposium (2008) can be viewed here.
To receive updates, registration details and program announcements subscribe to the Foundation email list at [LIVE LINK] www.fusfoundation.org
- Abstract submission commences in March 2010
- Registration commences in April 2010
- Venue: The Westfields Marriott, Chantilly (Washington Dulles 8 miles)
About the Focused Ultrasound Surgery Foundation
The Charlottesville based Focused Ultrasound Surgery Foundation’s mission is to develop new applications for, and to accelerate the worldwide adoption of Focused Ultrasound.
The Foundation’s activities include: funding translational and clinical research, providing fellowships for training physicians, hosting symposia and workshops, maintaining online informational resources, and establishing new centers of excellence.
Support for the Foundation comes from corporate and private philanthropic sources.
For more information please visit www.fusfoundation.org
About Focused Ultrasound
Focused ultrasound is a breakthrough technology poised to revolutionize the treatment of a variety of medical disorders by serving as the ultimate in minimally invasive surgery; an alternative to radiation therapy; the means for precisely delivering drugs in high concentration just to the point in the body where they are needed, thus avoiding systemic side effects; and dissolving blood clots to restore circulation.
Focused ultrasound holds the potential to noninvasively treat brain, breast, prostate, liver and other benign and malignant tumors; to convert metastatic cancer from a lethal disease to a chronic, manageable disorder; to reverse the disabling and life threatening neurological deficits from stroke; to alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, and chronic pain; and to address a host of other disorders ranging from heart disease to diabetes.
The procedure can be performed on an outpatient basis, does not require general anesthesia or incisions, results in minimal discomfort and few complications, and allows for rapid recovery.
MR-guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) is the result of the integration of two technologies: high intensity focused ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging. Focused ultrasound technology is analogous to using a magnifying glass to focus multiple beams of light on a point and burn a hole in a leaf. With focused ultrasound, multiple intersecting beams of ultrasound energy are focused with extreme accuracy on a target deep in the body as small as a grain of rice.
Where each individual ultrasound beam passes through the tissue, there is no effect. But where the beams intersect in the body, the focused energy has a cumulative effect, enabling precise heating and ablation of tissue, highly targeted drug delivery, or liquefaction of blood clots. Magnetic resonance imaging is used to visualize normal anatomy and abnormal structures within the body, to localize the tissue to be treated, to guide and control the treatment interactively in real time, and to evaluate the effectiveness of therapy.
