A POSSIBLE APPROACH TO THE TREATMENT OF POLYCYSTIC OVARIAN SYNDROME USING FOCUSED ULTRASOUND

A new method of treatment for infertility caused by polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) using thermal lesion formation by high intensity ultr asound has been suggested, Current options for PCOS therapy and the ac hievements of focused ultrasound surgery technique are reviewed and di scussed. A prototype of a low-cost commercial device for the treatment of PCOS has been designed and tested to prove the feasibility of the method. A transducer with curvature radius of 36 mm and aperture diame ter of 36 mml operating at 0.97 MHz, was designed and tested. II provi ded a maximum acoustic power output of 180 W. Well-defined tissue dama ge was obtained within 10 s in a pig's liver in vitro at 3 cm.depth wi thin an area 5 mm in diameter and 12 mm in length without damaging the surrounding tissue. Evaluation of the size of the lesions produced at different frequencies, sonication times and output power has been car ried out by visual inspection of the colour changes in cut tissue sect ions. Results demonstrate that a surgical tool based on the method sug gested should be feasible and warrants further investigation. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.