Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
Department of Radiology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
Sci Rep. 2024 Jan 17;14(1):1488. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-51623-5.
Focused ultrasound (FUS) is a non-invasive and non-ionizing technique which deploys ultrasound waves to induce bio-effects. When paired with acoustically active particles such as microbubbles (MBs), it can open the blood brain barrier (BBB) to facilitate drug delivery otherwise inhibited due to the presence of BBB. One of the parameters that affects the FUS beam propagation is the beam incidence angle on the skull. Prior work by our group has shown that, as incidence angles deviate from 90°, FUS focal pressures attenuate and result in a smaller BBB opening volume. The incidence angles calculated in our prior studies were in 2D and used skull information from CT. The study presented herein develops methods to calculate incidence angle in 3D in non-human primate (NHP) skull fragments using harmonic ultrasound imaging without using ionizing radiation. Our results show that ultrasound harmonic imaging is capable of accurately depicting features such as sutures and eye-sockets of the skull. Furthermore, we were able to reproduce previously reported relationships between the incidence angle and FUS beam attenuation. We also show feasibility of performing ultrasound harmonic imaging in in-vivo non-human primates. The all-ultrasound method presented herein combined with our neuronavigation system stands to increase more widespread adoption of FUS and render it accessible by eliminating the need for CT cranial mapping.
聚焦超声(FUS)是一种非侵入性、非电离的技术,它利用超声波来产生生物效应。当与微泡(MB)等声敏颗粒结合使用时,它可以打开血脑屏障(BBB),促进药物传递,否则由于 BBB 的存在会受到抑制。影响 FUS 波束传播的参数之一是颅骨上的波束入射角。我们小组之前的工作表明,随着入射角偏离 90°,FUS 焦点压力会衰减,导致 BBB 开口体积减小。我们之前研究中的入射角是在 2D 中计算的,并且使用了 CT 提供的颅骨信息。本文提出的研究方法使用谐波超声成像在非人类灵长类动物(NHP)颅骨碎片中计算 3D 中的入射角,而不使用电离辐射。我们的结果表明,超声谐波成像是能够准确描绘颅骨的缝线和眼窝等特征的。此外,我们能够再现之前报道的入射角与 FUS 波束衰减之间的关系。我们还展示了在体内非人类灵长类动物中进行超声谐波成像的可行性。本文提出的全超声方法结合我们的神经导航系统,有望增加 FUS 的广泛应用,并通过消除对 CT 颅骨映射的需求使其更易于获得。
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