Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

5-1-2013

Published In

Proceedings Of Meetings On Acoustics

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that thrombi, which may completely block the blood flow in a vessel, can be dissolved by ultrasound acting on echo-contrast agent microbubbles. The presumed mechanism is acoustic cavitation, the radial oscillations of the bubbles, which can exert locally large forces on the fibrin ropes that make up the clot matrix. However, the movement of the bubbles through the clot in the absence of flow suggests that acoustic radiation force also plays an important role. Because detailed mechanistic modeling of this process is not available, we present here a heuristic study in which microbubble transit times in gels of various porosities were measured and described by a simplified percolation theory. Results suggest considerations for optimizing the penetration of active microbubbles in sonothrombolysis.

Keywords

Fluid bubbles, ultrasonics, acoustic cavitation, gels, percolation

Conference

21st International Congress On Acoustics

Conference Dates

June 2-7, 2013

Conference Location

Montréal, Canada

Included in

Engineering Commons

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