Peripheral neuropathy (PN) is a difficult disease to manage. Symptomatic treatment focuses primarily on pain relief, using NSAIDs, opioids, tri-cyclic antidepressants, and selective serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors. There is potential for ultrasound transdermal drug delivery to improve the quality of care provided to patients with PN, since it is well-suited to peripheral nerves which are close to the skin. In addition, targeted delivery avoids many of the systemic consequences of taking a drug. We developed a wearable ultrasound drug delivery system called “SonoBandage” that combines low-impedance miniaturization of ultrasound transducer, RF electronics, and battery power supply, with a novel hydrogel coupling bandage loaded with salicylic acid NSAID. The design of the SonoBandage allows the device to be used over a range of ultrasound frequencies (0.1–3 MHz), intensities (0.1–3 W/cm2), and durations (0.25–4 h) increasing system flexibility for drug delivery protocols. The SonoBandage with NSAID was evaluated on a bench-top model with freshly harvested porcine skin and synthetic biomimetic human skin membrane (Millipore Inc). Across the n = 40 samples studied, salicylic acid drug flux was increased by 2–20x as compared to control samples (p < 0.01) after 1–4 h of ultrasound treatment. SonoBandage has potential to be used as a practical NSAID delivery platform for peripheral neuropathy.

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Colorectal cancer is the second leading cancer killer in the United States. Poor colon preparation occurs in 20-40% of colonoscopies in the community, which increases the duration of the colonoscopy by at least 10% and the cost of the procedure by up to 22% due to repeat visits. The goal of this research was to develop and preliminarily evaluate the first ultrasound-cavitation equipped colonoscope as an innovative approach to liquefy fecal matter with water/cavitation and improve colonoscope utility. Two ultrasound-equipped colonoscopes were developed. The first consisted of a 30 element 235 kHz array that was mounted as a cap on the tip of a commercial colonoscope (Olympus). The second consisted of a Time-Reversal Acoustic extroporeal 32 channel 100 kHz array that was electrically steered to the commercial colonoscope using PVDF detectors to acquire and monitor the TRA focusing routines. Both systems were evaluated in a series of bench tests for fecal liquification, as well as in the porcine cadaver. Results show that ultrasound exposure assists the liquification of fecal matter and 50 kPa exposure to ultrasound increases liquification by greater than 50 times. Blinded histological reports on excised tissues showed no significant different findings between control and ultrasound experiments.