Transcranial MR-guided Histotripsy for Brain Treatment

Brain diseases including cancer and stroke are major causes of death and disability. The current standard of care for brain diseases is invasive surgery guided by preoperative images, which can lead to morbid complications and severe adverse effects such as bleeding or damage to healthy brain tissue. Histotripsy is a non-invasive, non-thermal ultrasound technique that uses short-duration, high-pressure pulses to ablate tissue mechanically. The goal of this dissertation is to develop the first integrated transcranial magnetic-resonance(MR)-guided histotripsy system and assess the feasibility and safety of transcranial histotripsy for brain therapy.