Ultrasonics最新文献

{"title":"Ultrasound-induced adiponectin release in subcutaneous adipose tissue: implications for obesity treatment","authors":"Tiba Alshammari ,&nbsp;Omar Al-Dulaimi ,&nbsp;Aleksandar Jeremic ,&nbsp;Vesna Zderic","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107877","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107877","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Obesity affects more than one billion individuals worldwide and increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and several cancers. In this study, we investigated a nonpharmacological, nonsurgical alternative obesity treatment via the use of low-intensity ultrasound-based therapy. We evaluated the safety and efficacy of varying frequency and intensity parameters on inducing the release of the adipokine adiponectin, which is linked to many metabolic and anti-inflammatory processes.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) explants from healthy 7–8-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats were submerged in 5 mM glucose Krebs-Ringer buffer and exposed to continuous-wave ultrasound (400, 600, or 800 kHz; 0.3, 0.5, or 1.0 W/cm²; <em>n</em> = 6–9 per condition/sex), or were sham treated. Extracellular adiponectin levels were measured by ELISA at baseline, 5 min, and 30 min post-treatment. Histological integrity was assessed using H&amp;E staining.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>The highest net adiponectin gain (Δ = t_30min – t_0min) occurred at 600 kHz and 0.3 W/cm², with a 162.4 × increase relative to sham (1674.0 ± 661.1 ng/mL; Tukey-adjusted <em>p</em> &lt; 0.0001) at 30 min. At 400 kHz, 0.3 W/cm² increased secretion 10.7 × versus sham (110.3 ± 19.0 ng/mL; <em>p</em> &lt; 0.001). At 800 kHz, a comparable effect required 1.0 W/cm² (200.6 ± 69.0 ng/mL; <em>p</em> &lt; 0.0001), producing a 19.5 × increase. Female-derived tissue exhibited greater responsiveness than male-derived tissue at multiple intensities of 400 kHz and 800 kHz (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.05). Histology confirmed preserved adipocyte morphology and absence of necrosis or inflammatory infiltration across conditions.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>Within the tested range, these findings suggest that low-intensity ultrasound, particularly at 600 kHz and moderate intensities (0.3 and 0.5 W/cm²), enhanced adiponectin secretion without compromising tissue integrity. These findings support further investigation of ultrasound as a potential noninvasive strategy for modulating adipose endocrine function.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 107877"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145422821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Non-thermal ultrasound-guided fractionation of human leiomyosarcoma with boiling histotripsy: an ex vivo feasibility study","authors":"Ekaterina Ponomarchuk ,&nbsp;Sergey Tsysar ,&nbsp;Anastasia Kvashennikova ,&nbsp;Polina Pestova ,&nbsp;Liliya Papikyan ,&nbsp;Alexey Kadrev ,&nbsp;Natalia Danilova ,&nbsp;Pavel Malkov ,&nbsp;Andrey Chernyaev ,&nbsp;Sergey Buravkov ,&nbsp;Vera Khokhlova","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107876","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107876","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objective</h3><div>Leiomyosarcoma (LMS) is a malignant very aggressive tumor, composed of cells exhibiting smooth muscle differentiation, and one of the most common types of soft tissue sarcomas. Here the feasibility of a non-invasive ultrasound-based approach for mechanical fractionation of human LMS, termed <em>boiling histotripsy</em> (BH), was evaluated <em>ex vivo</em>.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Three autopsy samples of human retroperitoneal LMS were subjected to stiffness measurements <em>via</em> shear wave elastography, followed by a volumetric BH treatment using a custom-made focused ultrasound transducer (1.5 MHz, 12 sectors, <em>F</em># = 0.75) under diagnostic ultrasound guidance. Volumetric BH lesions (170–230 mm³) were produced in LMS samples through sonication over a 3D grid of foci (2–3 layers of 5 × 5 foci with 1–mm step) with 1 ms or 2 <!--> <!-->ms pulses delivered 150 or 80 times per focus with 1 % duty cycle (<em>P</em>+/<em>P</em>-/<em>A</em>_s = 167/-26/179 <!--> <!-->MPa <em>in<!--> <!-->situ</em>). BH sonications were performed within 14–20 min and corresponding BH-induced tissue damage was evaluated histologically with H&amp;E staining.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Stiffness of autopsy LMS tissue was within the broad range observed clinically. BH treatments were successfully planned and guided with diagnostic ultrasound. Complete liquefaction and cellular disruption of the target tumor volume with sharp boundaries between intact and fractionated tissue was confirmed histologically.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>This pilot study demonstrates the feasibility of boiling histotripsy for non-invasive ultrasound-guided mechanical fractionation of human LMS <em>ex vivo</em>, initiating further extended optimization studies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 107876"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145363812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dispersion characteristics and mode conversion of guided waves in plate-like structures with arbitrarily varying thickness","authors":"Xudong Yu ,&nbsp;Hao Zhou ,&nbsp;Zijian Zhang ,&nbsp;Rong Qin ,&nbsp;Peng Zuo ,&nbsp;Mingxi Deng","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107862","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107862","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Understanding explicitly the dispersion and mode conversion of guided waves in plates with varying thickness is crucial for enhancing the accuracy of guided wave tomography. While prior studies have examined dispersion in such structures, a unified framework that links evolving dispersion characteristics and modal conversion with adiabatic wave theory for arbitrary thickness variations remains absent. In this study, we systematically analyse thickness-dependent dispersion in tapered, stepped, and arbitrarily varying plates using finite element (FE) simulation, semi-analytical finite element (SAFE) calculation, and experiment. Our results confirm that local frequency-thickness product (<span><math><mrow><mi>f</mi><mi>d</mi></mrow></math></span>) governs dispersion, with higher-order guided wave modes emerging when <span><math><mrow><mi>f</mi><mi>d</mi></mrow></math></span> exceeds each mode’s cutoff. Symmetric thickness variations lead to intra-family conversions, while nonsymmetric configurations induce inter-family conversions. Moreover, we demonstrate that energy distribution among the converted guided wave modes strongly depends on the thickness gradient–gradual variations promote smooth, continuous energy transfer, whereas abrupt changes concentrate energy into fewer, higher-order modes. Finally, the introduction of a weighted time-distance mapping technique accurately compensates for dispersion effects, thereby validating our model. This work provides a solid foundation for future research on complex wave dynamics in structures with two-dimensional cross-sectional variations and advances guided wave tomography for engineering applications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 107862"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145356104","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Analysis of ultrasonic de-icing mechanisms and efficiency under different ice thickness","authors":"Yunlong Lv,&nbsp;Qin Hu,&nbsp;Peng Sun,&nbsp;Shaobin Kang,&nbsp;Yujie Leng,&nbsp;Xingliang Jiang","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107873","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107873","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ultrasonic de-icing technology has shown extensive potential in aviation, wind power and other fields due to its high efficiency and environmentally friendly features. However, existing studies have not systematically explored the influence of ice thickness on de-icing effect, especially the propagation characteristics and de-icing mechanisms under thicker ice conditions have not been fully studied. Therefore, this paper firstly analyses the dispersion curves under different ice layer thicknesses to determine the optimized frequency range. Subsequently, the finite element analysis method is used to systematically study the amplitude-frequency response characteristics of ultrasonic wave, and it is demonstrated from the simulation level that ultrasonic waves could generate sufficient shear force to remove the ice layer. Finally, icing experiments are conducted in an artificial climate laboratory to verify the de-icing effect of ultrasound. The experimental results indicate that as the thickness of the ice layer increases from 1 mm to 6 mm, the resonant frequency of the system decreases and the interface damping increases, resulting in de-icing time rising from 364 s to 540 s. The research results provide important support for the theoretical development and engineering optimization of ultrasonic de-icing technology.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 107873"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145363811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Wearable flexible ultrasonic transducers: materials, applications, and challenges","authors":"Lin Guo ,&nbsp;Jing Liu ,&nbsp;Ying Li ,&nbsp;Ruixia Xu ,&nbsp;Guangsheng Song ,&nbsp;Jianan Wu ,&nbsp;Zhihui Qian ,&nbsp;Lei Ren ,&nbsp;Luquan Ren ,&nbsp;Qiang Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107872","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107872","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Flexible Ultrasonic Transducers (FUTs) represent a rapidly evolving technology in wearable medical devices, enabling real-time, noninvasive, and continuous physiological monitoring on curved and moving body surfaces. By combining advanced piezoelectric materials with stretchable electrodes and soft encapsulation layers, FUTs overcome the limitations of traditional rigid transducers, including poor conformability, limited wearability, and the potential to cause pressure-induced deformation of the imaging target. This review first summarizes the working principles and typical architectures of FUTs, highlighting key material systems such as flexible substrates and electrodes, high-performance piezoelectric elements, flexible backing and matching layers, and electronic systems. It also summarizes the applications of FUTs in areas such as novel ultrasound diagnostic methods, ultrasonic treatment, advancing healthcare accessibility, and human–machine interaction. Finally, the paper discusses some of the technical challenges faced by FUTs and their corresponding future works, including long-term wearable performance, miniaturization, wireless capability, and the array element localization problem.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 107872"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145402069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Interpreting material anisotropy through the fractional wave equation","authors":"Ghatu Subhash ,&nbsp;Michael MacIsaac ,&nbsp;Charlie Tran ,&nbsp;Amanda Beck ,&nbsp;Woohyun Eum ,&nbsp;Joel B. Harley","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107866","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107866","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the fields of structural health monitoring and non-destructive evaluation (NDE), guided waves are often used for detection of material and structural defects. In this research, we have developed a comprehensive understanding of the generalized superelliptical form of the 2D scalar wave (Helmholtz) equation to predict structural features in anisotropic materials. The exponent of the terms in the superelliptical wave equation was systematically varied, while simultaneously varying the ratio of the wave velocities in two orthogonal directions, to develop 3D maps of wave propagation characteristics in the wavenumber domain as a function of frequency. These wave profiles were then interpreted to reveal structural features and material anisotropy. To validate these predictions, an experimental scheme was designed where a piezoelectric sensor excites a thin specimen, and the ensuing guided wave propagation features were captured on several materials using a laser Doppler vibrometer. The resulting responses in the wavenumber domain were compared against the predicted profiles and a good agreement was observed. Thus, the understanding developed from the superelliptical wave equation and its relationship to a material’s anisotropic structure were experimentally validated on an isotropic material, a uniaxial fiber reinforced composite, and three biaxial composites with different ratios of fiber and matrix stiffnesses. The proposed framework based on guided wave propagation of ultrasonic waves is shown to be a valuable tool to identify structural anisotropy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 107866"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145363813","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A semi-analytical multimodal Lamb wave imaging algorithm for damage identification in structural health monitoring","authors":"Zhengchen Dai ,&nbsp;Jinxia Liu ,&nbsp;Jianhai Zhang ,&nbsp;Zhiwen Cui ,&nbsp;Tribikram Kundu","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107874","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107874","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rapid damage identification in structural health monitoring (SHM) is critical for ensuring structural integrity and safety. Although Lamb waves exhibit high sensitivity to damages, quantitative correlation between multimodal time-of-flight (TOF) differences and damage parameters remains insufficiently explored. In this paper, we proposed an efficient damage identification algorithm based on multimodal Lamb wave TOF differences. The core of the method is a semi-analytical inversion model that reveals the relationship between the multimodal TOF differences and damage parameters. It provides a rapid way to obtain the residual thickness and length of the damage. Moving a transmitter–receiver pair is used to scan the whole detection area. The damage was located at the intersection of abnormal pathways. Dynamic baseline calibration<!--> <!-->through DBSCAN clustering eliminates historical reference dependency while distinguishing damage paths. Tests on aluminum specimens show the range of localization and thickness accuracy. Simulations and experiments confirm its efficacy for identifying corrosion-type damage, demonstrating significant potential for cost-effective SHM deployment in large-scale structures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 107874"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145356052","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A stochastic approach for calculating elastic constants of polymer lattice structures based on spectral ultrasonic data","authors":"Abdullah Al Masud ,&nbsp;Paul F Egan ,&nbsp;Jingfei Liu ,&nbsp;Karl A Fisher","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107870","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107870","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Additively manufactured polymer lattices are increasingly used in biomedical and structural applications due to their tunable mechanical properties and architectural similarity to biological materials. However, accurately resolving their anisotropic elastic response remains challenging due to fabrication inconsistencies, energy loss mechanisms, and differences between static and dynamic characterization techniques. In this study, a dynamic technique, resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) was applied to a stereolithography-fabricated body-centered tetragonal (BC-Tetra) lattice composed of a polyurethane-like resin. Elastic constants were extracted from both experimental and model (FEA) eigenfrequencies using a particle swarm optimization (PSO) scheme with modified parameter tuning to improve exploration of the non-convex inversion space. Comparison of inverted elastic tensors showed strong agreement for the axial stiffness,<span><math><mrow><mspace></mspace><msub><mi>C</mi><mn>33</mn></msub><mspace></mspace></mrow></math></span> and shear-related coefficients <span><math><mrow><mspace></mspace><msub><mi>C</mi><mn>44</mn></msub></mrow></math></span>​ and <span><math><mrow><mspace></mspace><msub><mi>C</mi><mn>66</mn></msub></mrow></math></span>, , while in-plane stiffness constants <span><math><mrow><mspace></mspace><msub><mi>C</mi><mn>11</mn></msub></mrow></math></span>​ and <span><math><mrow><mspace></mspace><msub><mi>C</mi><mn>12</mn></msub></mrow></math></span>​ and the axial coupling term <span><math><mrow><mspace></mspace><msub><mi>C</mi><mn>13</mn></msub><mspace></mspace></mrow></math></span> exhibited the greatest variance, reflecting inversion sensitivity and the limited number of resonances below the continuum cutoff. Engineering moduli derived from RUS were internally consistent and in-plane values agreed closely with FEA predictions, but quasi-static measurements of the in-plane moduli <span><math><mrow><mspace></mspace><msub><mi>E</mi><mn>1</mn></msub><mo>=</mo><msub><mi>E</mi><mn>2</mn></msub></mrow></math></span> and out-of-plane modulus <span><math><mrow><mspace></mspace><msub><mi>E</mi><mn>3</mn></msub><mspace></mspace></mrow></math></span> were 20 % and 32 % lower, respectively. This divergence highlights fundamental differences in compliance across loading regimes: quasi-static compression is strongly influenced by strut bending, resin pooling, and boundary effects, whereas RUS probes free–free global vibrational modes that enforce affine deformation at the scale of the entire lattice, suppressing local compliance mechanisms and yielding higher effective moduli. Our study is an effort to test the boundaries of RUS for high-loss polymer lattices and to develop practices that could eventually reduce operator dependence.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 107870"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145318767","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"High-precision wavefield simulation and deep learning-based sound speed reconstruction for transcranial ultrasound imaging","authors":"Jing Yang ,&nbsp;Yue Pan ,&nbsp;Yu Qiang ,&nbsp;Xingying Wang ,&nbsp;Zhiqiang Zhang ,&nbsp;Yanyan Yu ,&nbsp;Hairong Zheng ,&nbsp;Weibao Qiu","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107860","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107860","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Transcranial ultrasound imaging plays an important role in the diagnosis of brain diseases and the monitoring of brain function. However, the quality of transcranial imaging is often impaired by the intricate acoustic properties of the skull. Accurate reconstruction of the skull’s speed of sound (SoS) is critical for effective phase correction and enhanced image quality. In this study, we propose a transcranial SoS local reconstruction framework that integrates high-fidelity 2D numerical simulation with deep learning inversion. A custom wavefield simulation algorithm is developed to generate training datasets that can model spatially varying velocity and attenuation distributions. In the learning framework, we propose WAM-Net, which incorporates a Wavefront Attention Module (WAM) and a gradient-regularized loss function to reconstruct the skull’s SoS accurately. In numerical simulations, the proposed WAM-Net method significantly improves reconstruction speed compared to full-waveform inversion (FWI), and reduces the SoS reconstruction error by 63.52% compared to AutoSoS. In skull-mimicking phantom experiments, the method demonstrates reliable SoS reconstruction across various inclinations and structural designs, with an average Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 13.4844 m/s in Al₂O₃ phantom and a MAE of 31.3804 m/s in PMMA phantom. In the <em>in-vivo</em> experiments on a crab-eating macaque, the constructed SoS map effectively distinguishes between dense bone and porous bone in anatomically complex regions. These results indicate that the method provides an effective solution for real-time transcranial aberration correction, with high structural fidelity and robustness in heterogeneous cranial environments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 107860"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145356060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparison of mechanical and thermal effects of focused ultrasound on drug delivery efficiency and toxicity for pancreatic cancer treatment","authors":"Doyeon Kim,&nbsp;Jiyoung Hong,&nbsp;Daeseung Kim,&nbsp;Wonchul Sim,&nbsp;Aesin Cho,&nbsp;Gio Gil,&nbsp;Hyungwon Moon,&nbsp;Hak-Jong Lee,&nbsp;Keonho Son","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107861","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107861","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most lethal malignancies due to low response to chemotherapy. Focused ultrasound (FUS) has emerged as a promising strategy for enhancing tumor-specific drug delivery. However, chemotherapy in combination with FUS has still been limited by the unique tumor environment of pancreatic cancer. Thus, FUS application to clinical trials has been sufficiently considerable by several side effect. Therefore, many preclinical and clinical trials have been conducted to accelerate clinical application. This study demonstrates the effects of FUS-induced mechanical and thermal energies on drug delivery efficiency and safety in a PANC-1 xenografted BALB/c mouse model. Reflected acoustic pressure from tumors were analyzed to quantify cavitation effects, and enhancement of drug delivery investigated by fluorescence imaging. Anti-tumor efficacy with FUS exposure was compared using FOLFIRINOX. H&amp;E, TUNEL assay and serum biochemistry were evaluated for the comparison of toxicity. The results demonstrated that increase of cavitation dose was dominantly dependent on the intensity, not duty cycle inducing thermal effect for the enhancement of drug accumulation to tumor. Mechanical effects by 2.0 kW/cm²-I_SPPA and 1 % duty cycle enhanced drug accumulation to tumor by 1.57-fold without tissue damage. Also, FOLFIRINOX combined with mechanical effects achieved superior antitumor efficacy, with 83.0 % tumor inhibition compared to 48.0 % with FOLFIRINOX alone. And mechanical effect was validated as a non-toxic energy for tumor treatment by H&amp;E, TUNEL assay and serum biochemistry analysis. In conclusion, FUS-mediated mechanical effects can be one of candidate as a safe and effective strategy for tumor-specific drug delivery.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 107861"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145347569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}