Design of A Novel Wearable LIPUS Treatment Device for Mental Health Treatment

Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) has been proven to be an effective treatment modality to improve bone fractures, soft tissue regeneration and neuromodulation. Recently, it has been shown for treating mental health diseases. In this paper, a novel wearable LIPUS treatment device, including a wearable headband and a LIPUS generator, is designed. The circuit in the LIPUS generator is specially built to generate LIPUS for stimulating the brain via temples. Considering comfortableness and safety, we designed a flexible cap to cover ultrasound transducer. The custommade replaceable transducer cap can be refilled by different ultrasound coupling agents. We demonstrated how polyurethane rubber caps filled with different ultrasound coupling agents affect the ultrasound transmission intensity. Milli-Q water is identified to be the best ultrasound coupling agent for the polyurethane rubber cap with about 39.76% LIPUS intensity transmission.

[1]  Helen Christensen,et al.  School-based depression and anxiety prevention programs for young people: A systematic review and meta-analysis. , 2017, Clinical psychology review.

[2]  Feng-Yi Yang,et al.  Protective Effect of Low-Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound on Memory Impairment and Brain Damage in a Rat Model of Vascular Dementia. , 2017, Radiology.

[3]  S. N. Ramadas,et al.  Flexural mode metal cap transducer design for specific frequency air coupled ultrasound generation , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS).

[4]  Anna Janowska-Wieczorek,et al.  Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound-mediated stimulation of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell viability, proliferation and differentiation in vitro , 2012, Biotechnology Letters.

[5]  T. K. Chaki,et al.  Acoustic & Mechanical Properties of Neoprene Rubber for Encapsulation of Underwater Transducers , 2012 .

[6]  Y. Sheline.  Depression and the Hippocampus: Cause or Effect? , 2011, Biological Psychiatry.

[7]  S. Tillery,et al.  Transcranial Pulsed Ultrasound Stimulates Intact Brain Circuits , 2010, Neuron.

[8]  Woon Tiong Ang,et al.  Design and Implementation of Therapeutic Ultrasound Generating Circuit for Dental Tissue Formation and Tooth-Root Healing , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems.

[9]  Nicola Maffulli,et al.  The effects of LIPUS on soft-tissue healing: a review of literature. , 2008, British medical bulletin.

[10]  Yusuf Tufail,et al.  Remote Excitation of Neuronal Circuits Using Low-Intensity, Low-Frequency Ultrasound , 2008, PloS one.

[11]  Konstantinos N Malizos,et al.  Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound for bone healing: an overview. , 2006, Injury.

[12]  H. Flynn,et al.  Depressive symptoms among pregnant women screened in obstetrics settings. , 2003, Journal of women's health.

[13]  Walter G. Mayer,et al.  Fundamentals of Ultrasonics , 1964 .