Septal Ablation Induced by Transthoracic High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound in Canines

A feasibility study of noninvasive ablation of ventricular tachycardia using high‐intensity focused ultrasound

“…Previous studies have shown that HIFU could create targeted, precise, well‐demarcated thermal lesions and defects in different cardiac tissue without damage to the surrounding tissue by applying energy with an acoustic intensity of 1,630 W/cm 2 or 2,547 W/cm 2 using a 1‐MHz phased array transducer. Other investigators using the same equipment and a similar protocol demonstrated that HIFU could produce necrotic lesions in the ventricular septum. Our observations are consistent with these prior findings.…”

“…Theoretically, HIFU is one of these potential attractive ablation methods that could be applicable for this purpose. Although HIFU has been introduced to disrupt tissue in the central nervous system as early as in 1954 and is currently employed clinically for treatment of a variety of solid tumors in humans, its application to the heart has been limited . Previous studies have shown that HIFU could create targeted, precise, well‐demarcated thermal lesions and defects in different cardiac tissue without damage to the surrounding tissue by applying energy with an acoustic intensity of 1,630 W/cm 2 or 2,547 W/cm 2 using a 1‐MHz phased array transducer.…”

“…A HIFU Therapeutic System (Haifu, Model‐JC200, Chongqing Haifu Technology Co. Ltd., Chongqing, China; Figure ), which has been approved for treatment of solid tumors in humans in Europe and China, was used in this study. This technique using the same system has also been used for cardiovascular research by a different group . Briefly, the animal was placed onto the surgical table of the HIFU system with its left chest immersed in a degassed water tank.…”

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: the future of treatment

“…The use of HIFU to create intramyocardial lesions was first demonstrated in an ex‐vivo study in which 2 to 6 mm focal lesions were produced in the mid‐myocardial wall without damage to surrounding tissues . It was later demonstrated to be feasible in vivo with application of thoracotomy‐based HIFU from the right ventricular surface, and more recently from a closed‐chest, transthoracic approach with successful ablations performed up to 9 mm in size in the intraventricular septum of live canines . A different ultrasonic technique using microbubbles to produce myocardial cavitation and enhance energy delivery extracorporeally is under investigation .…”

Emerging non-cancer applications of therapeutic ultrasound

“…These devices have been investigated numerically [40, 41] and in preclinical animal models [42, 43]. Transthoracic cardiac ablations in canine models have also been demonstrated [44, 45]. …”