Key Points
- AAPM held its 65th Annual Meeting in Houston in July.
- The Foundation sponsored a symposium on using focused ultrasound with microbubbles for therapeutic effects.
The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) held its 65th Annual Meeting July 23–27, 2023, in Houston, TX. The theme of the meeting was “The Art of Science. The Science of Care.”
The Foundation sponsored the invited ultrasound specialty symposium, “Focused Ultrasound with Microbubbles for Therapeutic Effects,” which was moderated by Kenneth Hoyt from the University of Texas at Dallas. It featured two presentations followed by a Q&A session:
- MO-430-360-1 Noninvasive Neuroengineering for Monitoring and Control of Brain Activity by Jerzy Szablowski from Rice University in Houston, TX
- MO-430-360-2 Treatment Augmentation with Ultrasound Imaging and Microbubbles by Flemming Forsberg from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA
The program’s learning objectives were to understand the influence of ultrasound on microbubble contrast agents, learn how ultrasound exposure of microbubbles can be exploited for therapeutic effects, and discuss the issues and challenges related to the clinical application of ultrasound therapy.
An additional five abstracts featured work in the field of focused ultrasound, and these are listed below.
Refinement of Chirp-Coded Excitation Imaging to Monitor Histotripsy Bubble Clouds for Renal Tumor Ablation by Katia Flores Basterrechea, Kenneth B. Bader, and Giselle Miralles from the University of Chicago (oral presentation)
Drug Release Kinetics Modelling from Gold Nanoparticles Exposed to Low-Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound by Tyler Kenneth Hornsby, Farshad Moradi Kashkooli, Anshuman Jakhmola, Michael C. Kolios, and Jahangir (Jahan) Tavakkoli from the Department of Physics at Toronto Metropolitan University (oral presentation)
Evaluation of Machine Performance for a Clinical MR Guided HIFU System by Lili Chen, Xiaoming Chen, Chang Ming Charlie Ma, and Robert A. Price from Fox Chase Cancer Center (Poster)
Effect of CT Reconstruction Parameters on Skull Density Ratio Calculations for MRgFUS by Krystal M. Kirby, Andrea Ferrero, Aiming Lu, Michael Bruesewitz, Vance Lehman, Timothy Kaufmann, and Christopher P. Favazza from the Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center and the Mayo Clinic (ePoster)
Effect of Lipid Composition on Activation Potential of Phase-Shift Ultrasound Contrast Agents by Dmitry Nevozhay, Trevor M. Mitcham, Yunyun Chen, Stephen Y. Lai, Richard Bouchard, Konstantin V. Sokolov, and Cayla A. Wood from the Departments of Imaging Physics, Head and Neck Surgery, Radiation Oncology, and Molecular and Cellular Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (ePoster)
The next AAPM annual meeting will be held July 21–25, 2024, in Los Angeles, CA.