Technology Description

GTS is the first company in the world to develop and commercialize products that employ a unique form of ultrasound technology, Intense Therapeutic Ultrasound (ITU).

FDA Firsts (click here)

An important difference between GTS technology and other energy sources such as lasers, radiation, and radiofrequency is that the passage of ultrasound energy (acoustic waves) into the body is able to spare the intervening tissue, creating an unprecedented safety profile. In addition, some of the treatment devices developed by GTS contain ultrasonic imaging capability which the physician uses to target and/or evaluate the tissue prior to treatment. The imaging modality also may be used to image the effects of treatment during or after the procedure.

How Acoustic Waves Work

Propagation of acoustic waves in tissue can be precisely controlled in space. For example, sound waves can be tightly focused to points with sub-millimeter precision, at tissue depths ranging from the surface to tens of centimeters deep. Such capabilities have allowed ultrasound to be engineered into powerful medical modalities for imaging and therapy.

In diagnostic imaging, a focal point is scanned through tissue, and echos reflected from tissue boundaries at various depths are recorded and used to reconstruct an image.

Therapeutic ultrasound relies on the fact that as an acoustic wave propagates through tissue, part of it is absorbed and converted to heat. When hot enough, such tissue is thermally coagulated. Focusing sound waves allows concentrated energy deposition to occur deep in tissue, allowing precisely localized heating and thermal coagulation while sparing intervening tissue.

In high intensity focused ultrasound, or HIFU therapy, ultrasound beams are focused on diseased tissue, and due to the significant energy deposition at the focus, temperature within the tissue rises to 65°C to 95°C, destroying the diseased tissue by coagulation necrosis. Each sonication of the beams treats a precisely defined portion of the targeted tissue. This technology can achieve precise ablation of diseased tissue, and therefore it is called HIFU surgery. Because it destroys the diseased tissue non-invasively, it also is known as "non-invasive HIFU surgery." It is one modality of therapeutic ultrasound, and although it induces hyperthermia, it should not be confused with this technique, which heats to much lower therapeutic temperatures (generally temperatures are held at < 60°C).

Sound waves have unique properties compared to the primary therapeutic energy sources. In contrast to light energy, such as lasers, sound waves can be concentrated deep into tissue while maintaining a tight focus. In further contrast, radio frequency energy can propagate deep into tissue, but diffusely, with little or no precision.

Thus, ultrasound treatments from GTS provide for both depth and precision, key benefits that enable clinical approaches previously unimaginable, with the additional benefit of sparing intervening tissue. In addition, GTS has combined ultrasound therapy and imaging, allowing a physician to both see and treat.