Study of ultrasound thrombolysis using acoustic bubbles in a microfluidic device

Abstract

Thrombosis is a common medical entity associated with many forms of cardiovascular disease including myocardial infarction and stroke. Recently, ultrasound thrombolysis has emerged as a promising technique for thrombosis treatment by delivering acoustic waves onto blood clots. In this study, an ultrasound thrombolysis method is presented using an acoustic bubble-based microfluidic device. With acoustic actuation, microstreaming flow is created in the microchannel by oscillating bubbles, breaking up the blood clots in blood samples in a few milliseconds. In a low-frequency field, the effects of bubble size on microstreaming patterns and thrombolysis have been experimentally studied. Using image processing techniques, we have quantitatively investigated the relationship between the input signal and the thrombolysis performance. Additionally, the viability test proved that there are no significant detrimental effects on the blood cells after acoustic actuation. This acoustic bubble-based microfluidic device is demonstrated to be a promising platform for quantitative analysis of ultrasound thrombolysis. It opens up possibilities for future development of ultrasound thrombolysis devices for the diagnosis and treatment of heart diseases.