High intensity therapeutic ultrasound research in the former USSR in the 1950s–1970s

A historical overview of therapeutic ultrasound research performed in the former USSR in the 1950s–1970s is presented. In the 1950s, the team of A.K.Burov in Moscow proposed the use of non-thermal, non-cavitational mechanisms of high intensity unfocused ultrasound to induce specific immune responses in treating Brown Pearce tumors in an animal model and melanoma tumors in a number of patients. Later, in the early 1970s, new studies began at the Acoustics Institute in Moscow jointly with several medical institutions. Significant results included first measurements of cavitation thresholds in animal brain tissues in vivo and demonstration of the feasibility to apply high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for local ablation of brain structures through the intact skull. Another direction was ultrasound stimulation of superficial and deep receptors in humans and animals using short HIFU pulses; these studies became the basis for ultrasound stimulation of different neural structures and have found useful clinical applications for diagnostics of skin, neurological, and hearing disorders. Initial studies on the synergism between ultrasound in therapeutic doses combined with consecutive application of ionizing radiation were carried out. Later, hyperthermia research was also performed for brain tissues and for ophthalmology. [Work supported by the grant RSF 14-12-00974.]