Grant: Operating Grant

Blood clots blocking deep veins are treated using chemical agents to increase the rate of clot lysis but the event is still associated with significant long term health effects with associated costs with the patient care and lost productivity. Recent studies have demonstrated that mechanical removal of the blood clot can significantly improve the outcome. However, these methods are invasive and take a relatively long time to complete thus increasing the treatment costs. A portable and low cost and noninvasive method for quick opening of blocked deep veins would therefore benefit these patients. A faster restoration of the blood flow would reduce the amount of damage resulting in a more complete recovery. Image-guided focused ultrasound can concentrate acoustic energy deep in the tissue and it is currently tested for nonivasive thermal coagulation of tissue with a promise of replacing some invasive surgeries with large reduction in recovery time and cost to the society. Our laboratory has been one of the pioneers taking this technology to the clinic. In this proposal we plan to test the feasibility of high power ultrasound exposures to mechanically fragment the blood clots in the deep veins noninvasively.