Laser technology using ultrasound evaporates plaque arteries

Atherosclerosis, an accumulation of plaque, can lead to heart disease, artery disease and chronic kidney disease, and has traditionally been treated by inserting and inflating a balloon to dilate the artery. Other laser-based treatments can eliminate blockages rather than simply compress them, but are rarely used because they have a high risk of complications and low effectiveness.

Rohit Singh of the University of Kansas and other researchers have developed a method that combines low energy. laser with ultrasound for safe and effective removal of arterial plaques. Singh will describe the preliminary results in his presentation “The Novel Using Ultrasound laser technology remove atherosclerotic plaques”, At the 182nd meeting of the Acoustic Society of America. The session will take place on May 24 at 5:05 pm in the eastern United States at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel.

High power laser treatment direct thermal energy to evaporate water in the artery and create a steam bubble that expands and collapses, breaking the plaque. Similarly, the technology, originally by Xinmai Yang, the team’s doctoral adviser, uses a low-power nanosecond pulsed laser to produce microbubbles. The addition of ultrasonic irradiation causes the microbubbles to expand, break down and destroy plaque.

“In conventional laser angioplasty, the entire cavitation process requires high laser power, whereas in our technology, lower laser power is required only to initiate the cavitation process,” Singh said. “In general, the combination of ultrasound and laser reduces the need for laser power and increases the efficiency of atherosclerotic plaque removal.”

Because it destroys rather than compresses the plaque, the combined technique will have a lower rate of restenosis or re-narrowing of the artery compared to balloon angioplasty or stenting. The control provided by ultrasound and low power laser will reduce the risk of dissection and perforation of the arteries.

The team conducted ex vivo experiments with carotid artery plaque samples and porcine abdomen samples, and they currently plan to conduct in vivo experiments. Both laser and ultrasound techniques are commonly used by clinicians and should be easy to train and implement following in vivo studies.

The combination of low-power lasers and ultrasound techniques is not limited to the treatment of atherosclerosis. Singh and his colleagues also use the methodology of photo-mediated ultrasound therapy and ultrasound endovascular laser thrombolysis. The first can be used to remove abnormal microvessels in the eye to prevent blindness, while the second can dissolve blood clots in veins.

Singh will talk about these additional applications in poster sessions at the ASA meeting: “Analysis of cavitation loads on the wall of blood vessels during photo-mediated ultrasound therapy using numerical models based on finite elements” and “Combination Ultrasound and the endovascular laser for thrombolysis, ”May 25, 5 to 7 p.m.