Ultrasound-Induced Blood Stasis for Noninvasive Optical Spectroscopy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for ultrasound-induced blood stasis and tissue ablation are invasive, painful, and inefficient, with limitations in diagnostic accuracy and treatment accessibility, particularly for breast cancer, due to high intensity requirements and invasive procedures.
Innovation Solution
Combining focused standing wave ultrasound-induced blood stasis with optical spectroscopy for noninvasive imaging and using dual ultrasonic transducers to create a localized high-intensity focal zone for minimally invasive tissue ablation, allowing for precise temperature monitoring and reduced power requirements, enabling safer and more effective treatment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If high intensity ultrasound is used for tissue ablation, then complete cell death is achieved, but tissue damage and pain increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by using dual ultrasonic transducers to create a highly localized focal zone where high-intensity ultrasound is concentrated only at the target tumor site. The standing wave pattern ensures that high intensity is confined to a specific spatial region, allowing complete cell death at the focal point while surrounding tissues receive minimal or no ultrasound exposure, thus avoiding widespread tissue damage and pain.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the ultrasound field into distinct regions: a high-intensity focal zone for ablation and low-intensity regions for safe tissue interaction. By dividing the ultrasound energy distribution spatially, the system achieves effective tumor treatment while protecting adjacent healthy tissues from harmful effects.
2Measurement precision
If invasive procedures are used for blood flow measurement, then measurement accuracy is improved, but patient comfort and accessibility deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces invasive mechanical measurement methods with noninvasive optical spectroscopy. By using light interaction with blood (absorption and scattering properties of hemoglobin), the system measures blood flow and oxygen saturation without physical intrusion into blood vessels, eliminating the need for dissection or catheter insertion while maintaining diagnostic accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces light as an intermediary medium to measure blood flow parameters. Instead of directly measuring blood flow mechanically, the system uses optical properties of blood (absorption spectra of oxy and deoxyhemoglobin) as a mediator to infer flow characteristics, enabling noninvasive detection with high precision.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If ultrasound intensity limits are reduced to avoid tissue damage, then patient safety is improved, but blood stasis effect and diagnostic capability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs periodic action by using pulsed ultrasound rather than continuous exposure. The ultrasound is delivered in controlled bursts with specific duty cycles, allowing blood cells to experience sufficient acoustic pressure to induce stasis and banding during the pulse, while the intervals between pulses permit tissue recovery and prevent cumulative damage. This temporal modulation enables diagnostic effects at lower average intensities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies dynamics by adjusting ultrasound parameters (intensity, pulse duration, frequency) in real-time based on the desired effect. For diagnostic blood stasis, parameters are optimized to create sufficient acoustic pressure without exceeding safety thresholds, while for therapeutic ablation, parameters are dynamically increased only at the focal zone where complete cell death is required.
4Device complexity
If single transducer systems are used for ablation, then device complexity is reduced, but treatment precision and power efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges two ultrasonic transducers to create a dual-transducer system that generates a standing wave pattern. By combining the acoustic fields of two transducers facing each other, the system creates a highly precise focal zone where the standing wave nodes and antinodes are fixed in space, improving treatment precision and power efficiency compared to a single moving or sweeping transducer.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables noninvasive diagnostic imaging with high diagnostic accuracy and minimally invasive tissue ablation, reducing pain, treatment time, and risk of tissue damage, while allowing for more accessible treatment of breast cancers and other soft tissue tumors.
Implementation Method 1
Stationary sound waves have long been known to create banding effects when solids are suspended in liquids... The banding is due to the standing pressure wave created by the ultrasound
Implementation Method 2
oxy and deoxyhemoglobin have signature absorption and scattering effects visible in steady-state broadband diffuse reflectance optical spectroscopy
Implementation Method 3
oxy and deoxyhemoglobin have signature absorption and scattering effects visible in steady-state broadband diffuse reflectance optical spectroscopy
Implementation Method 4
The focused ultrasound is either swept through the tissue or operated in a burst mode at different burst durations and frequencies at high intensities with the outcome being a sudden localized temperature increase
Data Source
AI summary
Ultrasound-induced blood stasis has been observed for more than thirty years. Most of the literature has been focused on the health risks associated with this phenomenon and methods employed to prevent stasis from occurring during ultrasound imaging. To date, experimental observations have been either in vitro or invasive. The current work demonstrates ultrasound-induced blood stasis in murine tumor and nontumor tissue, observed through noninvasive measurements of optical spectroscopy, and discusses possible diagnostic uses for this previously undesirable effect of ultrasound.