A double-gaussian, percentile-based method for estimating maximum blood flow velocity.

Objectives: Transcranial Doppler sonography allows for the estimation of blood flow velocity, whose maximum value, especially at systole, is often of clinical interest. Given that observed values of flow velocity are subject to noise, a useful notion of "maximum" requires a criterion for separating the signal from the noise. All commonly used criteria produce a point estimate (ie, a single value) of maximum flow velocity at any time and therefore convey no information on the distribution or uncertainty of flow velocity.

Rapid ultrasonic stimulation of inflamed tissue with diagnostic intent.

Previous studies have observed that individual pulses of intense focused ultrasound (iFU) applied to inflamed and normal tissue can generate sensations, where inflamed tissue responds at a lower intensity than normal tissue. It was hypothesized that successively applied iFU pulses will generate sensation in inflamed tissue at a lower intensity and dose than application of a single iFU pulse. This hypothesis was tested using an animal model of chronic inflammatory pain, created by injecting an irritant into the rat hind paw.

A method for estimating zero-flow pressure and intracranial pressure.

Background: It has been hypothesized that the critical closing pressure of cerebral circulation, or zero-flow pressure (ZFP), can estimate intracranial pressure (ICP). One ZFP estimation method used extrapolation of arterial blood pressure as against blood-flow velocity. The aim of this study was to improve ICP predictions.

Intense focused ultrasound as a potential research tool for the quantification of diurnal inflammatory pain.

Quantifying pain through assay of a human's or animal's response to a known stimulus as a function of time of day is a critical means of advancing chronotherapeutic pain management. Current methods for quantifying pain, even in the context of etiologies involving deep tissue, generally involve stimulation by quantifiable means of either cutaneous (heat-lamp tests, electrical stimuli) or both cutaneous and subcutaneous tissue (von Frey hairs, tourniquets, etc.) or study of proxies for pain (such as stress, via assay of cortisol levels).