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Feasibility of Transcranial Focused Ultrasound to Measure Brain Tumor

Feasibility of Transcranial Focused Ultrasound to Measure Brain Tumor

Status
Recruiting
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT05755399
Enrollment
15
Registered
2023-03-06
Start date
2023-10-19
Completion date
2027-11-30
Last updated
2026-05-19

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Cranial Neurosurgery

Brief summary

Transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) offers a platform for non-invasive imaging and treatment of the brain and pathology of the brain -- allowing high resolution imaging in both spatial and temporal dimensions. Compared with the gold- standard for brain imaging, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound offers reduced contrast while providing improved sampling in time through a significantly more cost-effective approach. In addition, while MRI is used to guide invasive treatments, only ultrasound can offer treatments through three primary mechanisms: 1) neuromodulation, 2) blood brain barrier modulation, and thermal/mechanical ablation through high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU). All three treatment options require targeting therapy through the skull, which remains a barrier to clinical translation. This proposal is to test the feasibility of acquiring noninvasive targeting imaging intraoperatively prior to clinically indicated cranial neurosurgery. By acquiring volumetric ultrasound images while coregistered to previously obtained stereotactic magnetic resonance imaging, the study will be able to compare the ability of tFUS to identify and focus on brain pathology.

Interventions

DEVICEBrain imaging using transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS)

All enrolled patients will be imaged using the MRI as standard of care. The patient will additionally be imaged using the tFUS system, ICC HIFU Synthesizer. Total imaging time will be limited to 15 minutes. Following image acquisition by the ultrasound, the standard of care surgery will be performed.

Sponsors

University of Minnesota
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* Able to undergo informed consent * Scheduled and present for brain surgery * General Anesthesia planned * Neuronavigation used for surgery * Thin cut post-contrast imaging available for coregistration * At least 18 years of age

Exclusion criteria

* Awake craniotomy planned * Unhealed wounds or infection of scalp * Diseases and conditions that would increase the morbidity and mortality of craniotomy and tumor resection (e.g. cardiopulmonary issues) in the opinion of the PI. * Pregnancy (also generally required for surgery)

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Test feasibilitybaselineFor each participant feasibility is defined as 1 when any ultrasound slices are obtained and segmented. If tumor segmentation cannot be performed then this will be reported as 0, meaning not feasible. The result at the group level is a feasibility measure, i.e., the proportion of participants for whom the protocol was feasible.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Volume assessmentBaselinethree-dimensional reconstructions of MRI slices will be manually segmented, resulting in a tumor volume that will be compared with MRI-segmented tumor volume.
Morphology assessmentBaselinethree-dimensional ultrasound and MRI reconstructions will be co-registered onto a three dimensional grid and compared. The ratio of the MRI and FUS derived volumes will be computed, resulting in a distribution. A value of one for this ratio indicates perfect agreement.

Countries

United States

Contacts

CONTACTDavid Darrow, MD
darro015@umn.edu612-624-6666
CONTACTCrina Peterson
pet04139@umn.edu612-624-6666
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORDavid Darrow, MD

University of Minnesota

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: May 20, 2026