Image guided plaque ablation

摘要

A method and system for reducing vascular plaque non-invasively comprising the steps of imaging at least a portion of a mammalian body to produce an image; determining the location of at least one vascular plaque in said image; ascertaining the location of the base of said vascular plaque, said location of base being the target location; precisely determining the relative position of said target location with respect to the cardiac rhythm in the body; delivering a beam of ultrasound energy waves from a source to the relative position to elevate temperature of said target location in a pre-determined manner; monitoring the temperature of the target location; and discontinuing delivery of ultrasound energy waves when said target location achieves a pre-determined set temperature.

主权项

1. A method for reducing vascular plaque non-invasively comprising the following steps:
imaging at least a portion of a vessel wall to produce an image; determining the location of at least one vascular plaque in said image; ascertaining the location of the base of said vascular plaque, said location of base being the target location; determining a relative position of said target location with respect to the cardiac rhythm in the body; delivering a beam of ultrasound energy waves focused onto the target location within the base of the vascular plaque in or at the vessel wall, wherein the beam of ultrasound energy waves is from a source to a focal point in the relative position to elevate temperature of said target location for a duration in a pre-determined manner, wherein the intensity of focus of said ultrasound energy waves is between about 500 W/cm2 and about 3000 W/cm2 and the focal point is limited to less than 15 mm3; monitoring the temperature of the target location at the focal point is performed by interpreting data from at least one of an electrocardiogram and/or images from a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) device; and discontinuing delivery of ultrasound energy waves when said target location at the focal point achieves a pre-determined set of temperature, wherein the pre-determined temperature is adjusted such that the vessel wall is not damaged by the delivery of the ultrasound energy waves.