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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Acoust.
Sec. Ultrasound Technologies
Volume 2 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/facou.2024.1456606
This article is part of the Research Topic Insights in Ultrasound Technologies: 2024 View all articles

Pulsed focused ultrasound ablation assisted by a surface modified catheter for thrombolysis: a feasibility study

Provisionally accepted
Abhirup Samaddar Abhirup Samaddar 1,2,3*Xinmai Yang Xinmai Yang 1,2,3Laird Forrest Laird Forrest 4
  • 1 University of Kansas, Lawrence, United States
  • 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States
  • 3 Institute for Bioengineering Research, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States
  • 4 Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Interventional procedures for the recanalization of blood vessels to treat deep vein thrombosis carry a high risk of vessel wall injuries or hemorrhaging. Focused ultrasound (FUS) has been used to non-invasively break down blood clots that occlude the vessels in both in vitro and in vivo studies. Previous studies have either used thrombolytic drugs or ultrasound contrast agents (e.g., microbubbles) in combination with FUS. Several studies have applied very high peak-negativepressures (PNP) during FUS treatment to achieve successful thrombolysis without the use of contrast agents. In the current study, we demonstrated that cavitation activity could be significantly enhanced by placing a nitinol wire, whose surface was roughed by laser etching, in the focal region of a FUS field. We demonstrated in vitro in a mock thrombosis that the thrombolysis efficacy of a 500 kHz FUS transducer was significantly enhanced using a surface-etched nitinol wire as compared to an unetched nitinol wire, whereas FUS-alone at the same pressure level did not result in any thrombolysis. These results suggest that a surface modified nitinol catheter exposed to FUS can result in intense cavitation activities leading to enhanced thrombolysis without the use of additional pharmacological or contrast agents.

    Keywords: thrombolysis, focused ultrasound, cavitation, rough surface, catheter

    Received: 28 Jun 2024; Accepted: 04 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Samaddar, Yang and Forrest. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Abhirup Samaddar, University of Kansas, Lawrence, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.