Controlled ultrasound exposure for innovative therapeutic applications

Therapeutic Ultrasound is an exponentially growing field of research, that has the potential to transform the treatment of many medical disorders by using ultrasonic energy to precisely target tissue deep in the body without incisions or radiation. However, despite the encouraging results obtained in preclinical and clinical studies and the promising features of this innovative technology, some open issues have still to be addressed. Examples range from an accurate knowledge of the underlying mechanisms to treatment optimization and safety issues. Furthermore, many users and researchers in this field exploit ultrasound by using non standardized configurations, vulnerable to errors during calibration and use. Therefore, the results available in the state-of-the-art are hardly comparable, slowing down the progress of this technology. In this Thesis different activities, all dealing with innovative applications of therapeutic US (Low Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound for regenerative medicine, High Intensity Focused Ultrasound for cancer treatment, Ultrasound-induced Blood Brain Barrier opening and effects mediated by acoustically tuned and responsible materials), were investigated following the same scientific approach. In particular, well-characterized and reproducible systems for US studies were developed, by paying particular attention to the characterization of US sources, proper design of setups and correct reporting of exposure conditions.