Removing atherosclerotic plaque created using high cholesterol diet in rabbit using ultrasound

Christakis Damianou; Christos Christofi; Nicos Mylonas

doi:10.1186/s40349-015-0025-8

Removing atherosclerotic plaque created using high cholesterol diet in rabbit using ultrasound

J Ther Ultrasound. 2015 Jan 29;3(1):3. doi: 10.1186/s40349-015-0025-8. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Christakis Damianou¹, Christos Christofi², Nicos Mylonas³

Affiliations

¹ Electrical Engineering Department, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus ; R&D Department, MEDSONIC, LTD, Limassol, Cyprus.
² Electrical Engineering Department, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus.
³ Computer Science Department, Frederick Research Center, Limassol, Cyprus.

Abstract

Background: The aim of the proposed study was to conduct a feasibility study using a flat rectangular (3 × 10 mm(2)) transducer operating at 5 MHz for removing atherosclerotic plaque in an in vivo model. The proposed method can be used in the future for treating atherosclerotic plaques in humans.

Methods and results: The plaque in the rabbits was created using high cholesterol diet for 4 months. The amount of plaque removed was studied as a function of intensity, with a fixed pulse repetition frequency (PRF), and duty factor (DF).

Conclusions: The amount of plaque removed is directly related to the acoustic intensity. It was found that the presence of bubbles accelerates the removal of plaque. In order to ensure that pure mechanical mode ultrasound was used, the intensity used does not produce temperatures that exceed 1°C.

Keywords: Atherosclerotic; Plaque; Pulse; Ultrasound.