A few points based on comments I’m seeing about the article.
This method of ultrasound treatment is called histotripsy. The underlying mechanism it uses to treat tumors is by focused ultrasound beams that mechanically disrupt cell membranes . It basically turns the lesion into soup. It does not treat the lesion by heating, although there are other techniques that do use ultrasound to ablate tissue with thermal energy.
Where I have seen it used and discussed is in the liver, whether that be metastatic disease to the liver or primary liver tumors.
One challenge is that in the liver you can’t use it for lesions that are near the capsule of the liver. It can also be difficult to keep the ultrasound beam focused on the lesion with respiration, especially if the tumor is small.
It’s an interesting technique and I think more people will use it over time. Whether it will be better than other established techniques like microwave ablation or radioembolization (for liver tumors) remains to be seen. I’m an interventional radiologist.
My view is much more in line with yours and this interpretation.
Another point - I think many people (including other clinicians) have a sense that radiology is a practice of clear cut findings and descriptions, when in practice it’s anything but.
At another level beyond the imaging appearance and clinical interpretation is the fact that our reports are also interpreted at a professional and “political” level.
I can imagine a busy neurosurgeon running a good practice calling the hospital CEO to discuss unforgiving interpretations of post op scans from the AI bot……
> I can imagine a busy neurosurgeon running a good practice calling the hospital CEO to discuss unforgiving interpretations of post op scans from the AI bot……
I have fielded these phone calls, lol, and would absolutely love to see ChatGPT handle this.
I am an interventional radiologist. I’ve done procedures to embolize the prostate (helps shrink it), and gonadal vein embolization (for varices).
The gonadal veins are in a different vascular territory from the prostate. The prostates vascular territory is the anterior division of the internal iliac. The gonadal veins arise directly from the inferior vena cava.
I had not come across this research before it’s interesting because as mentioned above, these organs are in different vascular territories but when venous structures begin to reflux the blood may find other collateral routes through other territories.
I skeptical that this works, but it is really interesting.
I'm share some skepticism. While I agree with their belief that prostates suffer from unappreciated "mechanical" issues, I'm less convinced of their method of resolution.
For my own worthless anecdote, I've noted that my (usually post-orgasm) prostate pain was significantly improved when I started taking Losartan - a anti-hypertension medication (angiotension II blocker (ARB)). The day after I started taking it, I could feel my prostate like never before (then that initial sensation went away), so there was very clearly an associative mechanism of action.
Now in my fifth year of residency after finishing medical school, the effects of sleep debt are astounding. It’s difficult to describe how much better I feel and energetic I am when I have at least 3-4 days off work and get several consecutive nights of adequate sleep .
I made a search engine for radiologists (I’m also a radiologist). Have some articles indexed. Working on indexing videos and streamlining the backend processing. Front end is next js. Any feedback appreciated!
I'm not super familiar, but we have all sorts of things! It all comes down to what the US ONC (The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology) dictates is mandatory to be provided by the electronic health records companies.
You might be interested in the Laboratory section?
But in our recent updates (in accordance with new data becoming available in FHIR R4), we have doctor's notes, care plans, goals (some of which are viewable in the original PDF form). Although some of that viewer technology is pretty advanced and wouldn't be supported by an app like ours, for example MRI viewers, personal health data is definitely moving in the right direction for patients!
This method of ultrasound treatment is called histotripsy. The underlying mechanism it uses to treat tumors is by focused ultrasound beams that mechanically disrupt cell membranes . It basically turns the lesion into soup. It does not treat the lesion by heating, although there are other techniques that do use ultrasound to ablate tissue with thermal energy.
Where I have seen it used and discussed is in the liver, whether that be metastatic disease to the liver or primary liver tumors.
One challenge is that in the liver you can’t use it for lesions that are near the capsule of the liver. It can also be difficult to keep the ultrasound beam focused on the lesion with respiration, especially if the tumor is small.
It’s an interesting technique and I think more people will use it over time. Whether it will be better than other established techniques like microwave ablation or radioembolization (for liver tumors) remains to be seen. I’m an interventional radiologist.