Miniaturized Dual-Mode Intravascular Transducer for Sonothrombolysis

Abstract

Compared with traditional thrombolysis methods such as mechanical thrombectomy or pharmaceutical drug treatment, ultrasound thrombolysis has been reported to have high thrombolysis efficiency and safety. Notably, the intravascular thrombolysis with miniaturized ultrasound devices has drawn more attention due to its drug and agent delivery capability during the sonothrombolysis process. This paper presented a miniaturized dual-mode ultrasound transducer with piezoelectric stacks and a laser ultrasound transducer. By combining a low-frequency (600 kHz) tone burst sonication and a high-frequency (7.4 MHz) laser ultrasound pulse excitation, intravascular sonothrombolysis with enhanced thrombolysis was expected.