Martin-Fiori Werner
Fakultäten » Medizinische Fakultät » Kinderspital Zürich: Medizinische Klinik » MR-Forschung » Prof. Dr. Ernst Martin-Fiori » Martin-Fiori Werner
Completed research project
| Title / Titel | Image-guided neurosurgery: Transcranial MR-guided High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound for neurosurgical treatment of functional brain disorders | ||||||||
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| Abstract (PDF, 14 KB) | |||||||||
| Summary / Zusammenfassung | The aim of our project is to introduce transcranial Magnetic Resonance-guided Focused Ultrasound (tcMRgFUS) into clinical medicine for neurosurgical treatment of functional brain disorders in a fully non-invasive manner. Magnetic Resonance-guided High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (MRgHIFU) uses high intensity ultrasound beams that are focused into a hotspot with a volume of only a few cubic millimeters, where the heating is high enough to induce thermal tissue ablation deep inside an organ. Target volume planning and online temperature mapping in the target volume are done using Magnetic Resonance Imaging methods. In this project we aim to extend the use of existing MRgHIFU technology to applications in the human brain by developing technologies and protocols for non-invasive treatment of different diseases through the intact skull. Transcranial MRgHIFU overcomes severe limitations of even minimally invasive operation methods, e.g. the significant risk of damaging healthy brain tissue during the process of a neurosurgical intervention. The first clinical applications for TcMRgHIFU in the present project are the neurosurgical treatment of patients with (a) neuropathic pain and (b) with movement disorders, such as Parkinson's disease and tremor. Longterm research in the field of fucntional brain disorders has confirmed the evidence that a distortion of the normal electrophysiological dynamics between thalamus and cortex, named thalamocortical dysrhythmia (TCD), is the underlying basic mechanism. Theoretical understanding of TCD in terms of basic cellular and network oscillatory dynamics has allowed developing specific stereotactic targets in the medial thalamus, or in the pallidum that allow the retuning of brain rhythmicity without reduction of the thalamocortical function. Conducting these surgical procedures non-invasively by using TcMRgHIFU technology requires support by new advanced tools and significant methodological developments. |
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| Publications / Publikationen | Martin E, Jeanmonod D, Morel A, Zadicario Eyal, Werner Beat. High Intensity Focused Ultrasound for Non-Invasive Functional Neurosurgery. Annals of Neurology 66:858-861, 2009. | ||||||||
| Keywords / Suchbegriffe | functional Neurosurgery, Magnetic Resonance, Focused Ultrasound, HIFU | ||||||||
| Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte |
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| Other links to external web pages | http://co-me.ch/projects/phase2/p05/index.en.html http://www.kispi.uzh.ch/af/ForschungLehre/zentrum/Forschungsprojekte/neurosurgery/image_en.html |
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| Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch |
SNF (Programm NFS/NCCR), Others NCCR Computer Aided and Image Guided Medical Interventions (www.Co-Me.ch)University Zürich, ETH ZürichGönnerverein Kinderspital Zürich |
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| In collaboration with / In Zusammenarbeit mit |
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| Duration of Project / Projektdauer | Jul 2005 to Dec 2010 |