Ultrasound treatment of neurological diseases — current and emerging applications

Ultrasound is a mechanical pressure wave with a frequency above the range of human hearing (>20 kHz) that is increasingly used as a diagnostic, surgical, neuromodulation and drug delivery toolSurgical ultrasound initially required craniotomies, but large phased ultrasound arrays have enabled clinical trials of surgical ultrasound through the skull for essential tremor, Parkinson disease, obsessive–compulsive disorder and chronic painIn addition to surgery and neuromodulation, ultrasound has huge potential in its capacity to open the blood–brain barrier to allow drug delivery to the brainUltrasound therapy has shown promise in the treatment of Alzheimer disease; the unified biochemical basis of neurodegenerative diseases suggests that ultrasound could be effective in more of these conditionsSafety issues and attenuation of ultrasound by the human skull pose major challenges for the translation of ultrasound-based strategies for the prevention and treatment of neurological diseasesThe combination of ultrasound technology and drug development has the potential to reduce, halt or even prevent neurodegenerative diseases and other brain disorders