Dual Excitation Catheter-delivered Laser Ultrasound Thrombolysis (DECLUT) for Deep Vein
Thrombosis (DVT) Treatment
Deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), or the formation of clots in the deep veins of the legs, affects
two million Americans per year. DVT can cause pulmonary embolism (PE), which is fatal in >0.1
million cases annually in the US alone, presents as sudden death in 20-25% of cases. Recent
innovative DVT treatment techniques, such as pharmacological dissolution or fibrinolysis,
mechanical fragmentation and sonothrombolysis, showed progressive results. However, the low
thrombolysis efficiency, vein injury associated severe regional dysfunction, the relatively large
size of clot debris, risk of recurrent and distal embolism are key limitations for effective DVT
treatments. More recently, research on ultrasound thrombolysis using multifrequency ultrasound
excitations, combined continuous wave and laser ultrasound excitations, and excitations using
microbubbles (MBs) showed promising lytic rate, but these demonstrated methods used
transducers with relatively large aperture and are not applicable to integrated catheter for
intravascular thrombolysis. In this project, a dual excitation catheter-delivered laser ultrasound
thrombolysis (DECLUT) technology is proposed to address the existing challenges in DVT
treatments. In specific, a 7-French catheter integrated with a small aperture dual frequency high
intensity ultrasound transducer, a laser ultrasound transducer, and a micro-tube for delivery of
MBs and lytic agent (t-PA) will be designed, prototyped and characterized, followed by in-vitro
and ex-vivo thrombolysis tests. With the proposed technique, fast clot dissolution can be expected
because of the use of MBs and the dual-ultrasound excitation; safe clot-dissolving can be
achieved due to the minimal use of lytic agent, the reduced physical contact to the target clot and
the minimal acoustic exposure of the surrounding vessel wall.
The proposed DECLUT technology provides a new tool enabling physicians in more accurate,
fast and safe DVT treatment, and facilitating the development of novel intravascular drugs and
device therapies. In addition to DVT treatments and other intravascular thrombolysis, the
proposed DECLUT technique will be also be useful in minimal invasive cancer treatment and
targeted drug delivery.
