soccertese

this sounds like a good compromise. Am I missing anything?


Benefits of ExAblate Treatment for Parkinson's Disease

1. Focused Ultrasound treatment is non-invasive just like radio-surgery, however it therapeutic effects are immediate and it does not use ionizing radiation and thereby does not have the adverse effect and limitation associated with it.
2. Compared to radio-frequency ablation, focused ultrasound is non-invasive and therefore has significant reduced risk for infection. Also as focused ultrasound is done under closed loop thermal feedback, it is more likely to damage only targeted tissue and spare non-targeted healthy brain.
3. Compared to implantation of deep brain stimulation device, focused ultrasound is a onetime procedure, and does not require subsequent procedure to replace batteries. Focused Ultrasound also does not involve implantation of a foreign body, and thereby carries a reduced risk of blood clots creation.
4. Since there is no need to insert electrodes or needles the collateral damage to the brain is reduced

source: http://www.insightec.com/Parkinson_Disease.html

your're describing surgery with ultrasound, destroying a part of the brain,
the photo treatment wouldn't kill cells, just dissolve the lewy bodies i assume.
or like with some experimental treatments, you pretreat the cells with a chemical that binds with the proteins, the chemical absorbs the light and then might breakdown the protein.

http://fusfoundation.org/focused-ult...insons-disease

Peggy, I agree with you about InSightec's ExAblate treatment. It seems very exciting. I spoke with the team testing it at the U of Va. a few weeks ago at a research conference. They are still waiting for final FDA approval to begin the PD study (not sure why its taking so long). The have begun researching it on PD in Switzerland. They are much further along with researching its use on Essential Tremor and told me the results have been great. They think they will get equally good results on PD Tremor since they intend to hit the exact same spot in the brain.

Just think if they can get similar results to DBS without having the surgery and other issues that go along with it..........

We got really excited about this, too, and actually corresponded with the Dr. in Switzerland.....it is different from DBS in several ways, the most important, to us, being that the ultrasound permanently severs the nerve that is the target. If it worked, that's great, but if you were an anomly and the typical target did not work for you, it's too late, the heat has destroyed that connection/nerve in the area that was the target.

I think it has huge potential too, and it's really exciting. I just don't know how they determine where to focus the ultrasound laser beam for each individual person: with DBS, you are awake and they can move the electrodes around to find the optimal placement with no damage, with this procedure, I don't think it works like that. But correct me if I'm wrong, maybe I am misunderstanding the procedure.

I think you are mostly correct. I do know that the patient is awake during the procedure and they are monitoring its effects real time so they know if they have the right spot or if there are problems. But, as you said, it may be irreversible. Still seems much safer to me than DBS, and the early results with Essential Tremor have been excellent. It certainly bears watching.

This is some info that you've probably seen already on the ExAblate Neuro:

http://www.insightec.com/contentMana...hite_paper.pdf