Our hospital uses MR-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) to treat essential tremor and Parkinson's disease tremors, but it is difficult to treat patients with a skull surface-to-internal density ratio (SDR) of less than 0.40 (we do not treat patients with an SDR of less than 0.35).

In light of this situation, our hospital has worked to improve the ultrasound irradiation method for MRgFUS, and as a result, we have confirmed that patients with an SDR of 0.35 to 0.40 can achieve the same level of improvement in tremors as patients with an SDR of 0.4 or higher. This shows that sufficient therapeutic effects can be expected even in patients who were previously considered unlikely to benefit from MRgFUS.

The results of this analysis conducted at our hospital were published in Neurosurgical Focus, the open access journal of the North American Neurosurgical Association, on September 1, 2024.

If you are suffering from tremors caused by Parkinson's disease or essential tremor, please visit our Tremor/Parkinson's Disease Outpatient Clinic.

• Minimum and early high-energy sonication protocol of MR-guided focused ultrasound thalamotomy for low–skull density ratio patients with essential tremor and Parkinson's disease

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