Background and Objectives: Port wine birthmark, also known as port wine stain (PWS) is a skin discoloration characterized by red/purple patches caused by vascular malformation. PWS is typically treated by using lasers to destroy abnormal blood vessels. The laser heating facilitates selective photothermolysis of the vessels and attenuates quickly in the tissue due to high optical scattering. Therefore, residual abnormal capillaries deep in the tissue survive and often lead to the resurgence of PWS. Ultrasound (US) has also been proposed to treat PWS, however, it is nonselective with respect to the vasculature but penetrates deeper into the tissue. We aim to study the feasibility of a hybrid PWS treatment modality combining the advantages of both modalities. Materials and Methods: In this manuscript, we propose a photoacoustic (PA) guided US focusing methodology for PWS treatment which combines the optical contrast-based selectivity with US penetration to focus the US energy onto the vasculature. The PA signals collected by the transducers, when time-reversed, amplified, and transmitted, converge onto the PWS, thus minimally affecting the neighboring tissue. We performed two-and three-dimensional simulations that mimic realistic transducers and medium properties in this proof of concept study. Results: The time-reversed PA signals when transmitted from the transducers converged onto the vasculature, as expected, thus reducing the heating of the neighboring tissue. We observed that while the US focus is indeed affected due to experimental factors such as limited-view, large detector separation and finite detection bandwidth, and so forth, the US did focus completely or partially onto the vasculature demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed methodology. Conclusion:The results demonstrate the potential of the proposed methodology for PWS treatment. This treatment method can destroy the deeper capillaries while minimally heating the neighboring tissue, thus reducing the chances of the resurgence of PWS and as well as cosmetic scarring.K E Y W O R D S photoacoustic (PA)-guided ultrasound (US), photoacoustics (PA), port wine stain (PWS), time-reversal (TR), high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.