AA #10

Busting Blood Clots with Sound Waves

InSightec's high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) device is lined with more than 1,000 ultrasound transducers. Each transducer can be focused and can converge on a spot only four millimeters wide, accurate enough to hit an artery-blocking clot and dissolve it in under a minute. It can be used without damaging the skull. One day, it might be used to break stroke-causing blood clots in the brain. So far, it has only been tested on animals, but researchers want to start human testing by the end of 2011. In studies in rabbits, it has been shown that the InSightec system can break clots in the brain without harming healthy tissue. Today, only two proven methods are in use to destroy clots. A drug called tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), which dissolves clots. It must be administered within three hours of the stroke. The second method is physically removal of the clot from a blood vessel, but few hospitals practice this technique. There are many questions about this technique, including how radiologists will be able to pinpoint the clot's exact location in the brain.


L. Gravitz. “Busting Blood Clots with Sound Waves.” Technology Review, 2/17/2010. 2/17/2010 <http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/24548/>.