Thrombosis is the medical term for the process of pathologic blood clot formation, the key mechanism behind many cardiovascular diseases. For example, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a condition which affects nearly two million Americans annually and is commonly diagnosed as thrombosis in the deep veins of the legs. To treat DVT, the blood clots need to be removed, a process generally termed thrombolysis. Current clinical thrombolysis methods include catheter-based procedures and thrombolytic drugs, both of which have significant drawbacks including invasiveness and risks of bleeding and infection. To improve the clinical standard of thrombolysis, we propose to develop an ultrasonic thrombolysis technique that is non-invasive and carries virtually no risks of bleeding and infection. Our technique, which we call """"""""histotripsy"""""""", uses controlled ultrasound cavitation to mechanically fractionate soft tissue non-invasively, guided by high resolution imaging. By initiating and maintaining the cavitating bubble cloud with appropriate ultrasound pulse sequences, a targeted tissue can be precisely fractionated with a very narrow boundary between affected and normal tissue. As applied to thrombolysis, our preliminary data show that histotripsy can fractionate a blood clot at a speed fifty-fold faster than any current clinical thrombolysis method. Histotripsy breaks down blood clots into tiny particles that are smaller than red blood cells. As histotripsy-induced cavitating bubbles are easily detected acoustically, histotripsy thrombolysis can be guided and monitored by real-time ultrasound imaging. We propose to further improve and optimize histotripsy for safe and efficient non-invasive thrombolysis to treat DVT.
We aim to further investigate the bubble-tissue interaction mechanism behind the histotripsy process. A deeper understanding of the interaction mechanism will provide a rational basis to optimize histotripsy acoustic parameters specific for thrombolysis. To reduce the embolization risk, we will develop a non-invasive embolus trap (NET) strategy by setting a secondary cavitating bubble cloud downstream of treatment location to capture and fractionate any escaping clot fragments. We will also develop real-time ultrasound imaging feedback techniques to guide and control the treatment progress and completion.
These aims will be studied first in vitro and subsequently tested in an in vivo porcine venous thrombosis model. Successful completion of these specific aims will help us to develop a prototype histotripsy thrombolysis system to treat DVT in human patients, which could potentially lead to the broader application of histotripsy to other clinical conditions requiring thrombolysis, including stroke, superficial vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and dialysis graft thrombosis. Public Health Relevance Statement (provided by applicant): Thrombosis is the medical term for the process of pathologic blood clot formation, the key mechanism behind many cardiovascular diseases. For example, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a condition which affects nearly two million Americans annually and is commonly diagnosed as clot formation in the deep veins of the legs. In up to 5% of DVT cases, clots dislodge and result in pulmonary embolism, causing at least 100,000 deaths annually in USA alone. To treat DVT, blood clots need to be removed, a process generally termed thrombolysis. Current clinical thrombolysis methods include thrombolytic drugs and catheter-based surgical procedure, both of which have significant drawbacks. For instance, thrombolytic drugs have the potential to cause excessive bleeding, which may be fatal in a small number of cases. Also, catheter-based procedures are invasive and carry risk of both bleeding and infection. We propose to develop an ultrasonic thrombolysis technique that is non-invasive and carries virtually no risks of bleeding and infection. Our first targeted clinical application will be DVT. In addition, we believe this technique could also potentially improve the standard of care for other clinical applications where thrombolysis is needed, including stroke, superficial vein thrombosis, dialysis graft thrombosis, bypass graft thrombosis or embolization, arterial embolism and pulmonary embolism.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01EB008998-04
Application #
8125002
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZEB1-OSR-B (O1))
Program Officer
Lopez, Hector
Project Start
2008-09-30
Project End
2013-08-31
Budget Start
2011-09-01
Budget End
2012-08-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$501,832
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Department
Biomedical Engineering
Type
Schools of Engineering
DUNS #
073133571
City
Ann Arbor
State
MI
Country
United States
Zip Code
48109
Shi, Aiwei; Lundt, Jonathan; Deng, Zilin et al. (2018) Integrated Histotripsy and Bubble Coalescence Transducer for Thrombolysis. Ultrasound Med Biol 44:2697-2709
Macoskey, Jonathan J; Zhang, Xi; Hall, Timothy L et al. (2018) Bubble-Induced Color Doppler Feedback Correlates with Histotripsy-Induced Destruction of Structural Components in Liver Tissue. Ultrasound Med Biol 44:602-612
Shi, Aiwei; Xu, Zhen; Lundt, Jonathan et al. (2018) Integrated Histotripsy and Bubble Coalescence Transducer for Rapid Tissue Ablation. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control 65:1822-1831
Macoskey, Jonathan J; Hall, Timothy L; Sukovich, Jonathan R et al. (2018) Soft-Tissue Aberration Correction for Histotripsy. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control 65:2073-2085
Macoskey, J J; Choi, S W; Hall, T L et al. (2018) Using the cavitation collapse time to indicate the extent of histotripsy-induced tissue fractionation. Phys Med Biol 63:055013
Gerhardson, Tyler; Sukovich, Jonathan R; Pandey, Aditya S et al. (2017) Catheter Hydrophone Aberration Correction for Transcranial Histotripsy Treatment of Intracerebral Hemorrhage: Proof-of-Concept. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control 64:1684-1697
Gerhardson, Tyler; Sukovich, Jonathan R; Pandey, Aditya S et al. (2017) Effect of Frequency and Focal Spacing on Transcranial Histotripsy Clot Liquefaction, Using Electronic Focal Steering. Ultrasound Med Biol 43:2302-2317
Mancia, Lauren; Vlaisavljevich, Eli; Xu, Zhen et al. (2017) Predicting Tissue Susceptibility to Mechanical Cavitation Damage in Therapeutic Ultrasound. Ultrasound Med Biol 43:1421-1440
Vlaisavljevich, Eli; Gerhardson, Tyler; Hall, Tim et al. (2017) Effects of f-number on the histotripsy intrinsic threshold and cavitation bubble cloud behavior. Phys Med Biol 62:1269-1290
Lundt, Jonathan E; Allen, Steven P; Shi, Jiaqi et al. (2017) Non-invasive, Rapid Ablation of Tissue Volume Using Histotripsy. Ultrasound Med Biol 43:2834-2847

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