Guided Waves in the Skull

Author: Héctor Estrada1,2, Daniel Razansky3,4
Affiliation:
1 Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. hector.estrada@posteo.org.
2 Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. hector.estrada@posteo.org.
3 Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
4 Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Conference/Journal: Adv Exp Med Biol
Date published: 2022 May 9
Other: Volume ID: 1364 , Pages: 411-422 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-91979-5_19. , Word Count: 163


Skull bone is the main obstacle for transcranial ultrasound therapy and imaging applications. Most efforts in characterizing ultrasonic properties of the skull have been limited to a narrow frequency range and normal incidence. On the other hand, acoustic guided waves in plates have been used in non-destructive evaluation of materials and also to assess the strength of long bones. Recent work has likewise revealed the existence of skull-guided waves (SGWs) in mice and humans when performing measurements over a broad range of frequencies and incidence angles. Here we provide an overview on the recent progress in our understanding on the propagation of SGWs, describe the measurement techniques used to detect SGWs, the experimental observations, and the accompanying modeling efforts. Finally, the outstanding challenges to harness SGWs in applications such as transcranial therapy, imaging, and cranial bone assessment are discussed.

Keywords: Bone characterization; Lamb waves; Laser ultrasound; Laser vibrometry; Leaky waves; Near-field; Optoacoustics; Rayleigh waves; Skull; Transcranial ultrasound.

PMID: 35508886 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-91979-5_19

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