Investigation of efficient alternatives for configuring ultrasonic transducers for cardiac sonothrombolysis

• Grant number: 18/21435-9
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: February 01, 2019 - April 30, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Biomedical Engineering - Medical Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Sergio Shiguemi Furuie
• Grantee: Sergio Shiguemi Furuie
• Host Institution: Escola Politécnica (EP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Chi Nan Pai

Abstract

Current treatments for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) involve pharmacological thrombolysis and/or coronary intervention through catheterization. The enzymatic approach is systemic and has limited efficacy, whereas percutaneous intervention has low availability in the Health network. The situation is aggravated by the urgency of treatment, with the majority of AMI deaths occurring outside the hospital setting. It is therefore very important to investigate effective but less invasive and more localized alternative procedures. In this scenario, ultrasound is considered very promising in the treatment of acute and chronic thrombosis, since it can be applied externally and focused, is not ionizing, and can be reapplied several times.The importance of ultrasound application for thrombolysis (sonothrombolysis) in conjunction with microbubbles has been proven using commercial clinical equipment, operated by imaging experts. It was concluded that the cavitation of the microbubbles has a thrombolytic effect, improving both the epicardial coronary circulation and the microcirculation. Therefore, the development of a portable, simpler and easier to use instrument for sonothrombolysis may increase access to this procedure. However, a simple replication of the clinically tested protocol in a portable device may not be the most efficient and the safest. The purpose of this proposal is to investigate more efficient and safer alternatives for the configuration of ultrasonic transducers for cardiac sonothrombolysis. As the scanning must be throughout the cardiac volume, there are several open questions that must be investigated in depth: a) quantity and size of transducers, and their frequency of resonance; b) spatial arrangement of the transducers; c) amplitude, duration and frequency of repetition of the pulses; d) duration of the procedure; e) cavitation measurement and control. The methodology will consist of theoretical studies of the distribution of acoustic field in homogeneous media, considering the influence of lateral lobes and the contribution for each focus. In heterogeneous and more realistic media, the evaluation of electronic sweep, intensity coverage, as well as the mechanical index, will be performed by means of numerical simulation. Evaluation in animals or patients is not part of the scope of this project.The expected result is a set of efficient and safe transducer configurations, as well as their architecture, for cardiac sonothrombolysis applications. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

CECCATO, ROBERTO; FURUIE, SERGIO; BOTTENUS, N; RUITER, NV. Statistical estimation of the regularization parameter for ultrasound tomographic reconstructions and its noise tolerance. MEDICAL IMAGING 2022: ULTRASONIC IMAGING AND TOMOGRAPHY, v. 12038, p. 11-pg., 2022-01-01. (21/04814-9, 18/21435-9)

ALSAKER, MELODY; CARDONA CARDENAS, DIEGO ARMANDO; FURUIE, SERGIO SHIGUEMI; MUELLER, JENNIFER L.. Complementary use of priors for pulmonary imaging with electrical impedance and ultrasound computed tomography. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, v. 395, OCT 15 2021. (18/21435-9)

ANDRADE, A. T.; FURUIE, S. S.; BASTOS-FILHO, TF; CALDEIRA, EMD; FRIZERA-NETO, A. Study of a Sonothrombolysis Equipment Based on Phased Ultrasound Technique. XXVII BRAZILIAN CONGRESS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, CBEB 2020, v. N/A, p. 5-pg., 2022-01-01. (18/21435-9)