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Company Licenses Ultrasound Atherosclerosis Therapy

Human heart and arteries (Yale School of Medicine/Wikimedia Commons)

(Yale School of Medicine/Wikimedia Commons)

International Cardio Corporation (ICC) in Excelsior, Minnesota has licensed technology developed at University of Minnesota to treat atherosclerosis with ultrasound. The ultrasound treatment is considered less invasive and potentially safer for the patient than current therapies, such as stents and balloon angioplasty.

Atherosclerosis is the name of the process in which deposits of fatty substances, cholesterol, cellular waste products, calcium and other substances build up in the inner lining of larger arteries. This buildup is called plaque. These plaques can restrict blood flow or detach from the artery wall to form blood clots.

Current therapies for treating atherosclerosis, while effective, carry more risk for the patient because they are invasive. The Minnesota technology, developed by engineering professor Emad Ebbini, employs high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) technology that performs noninvasive, real-time ultrasonic imaging, and localized treatment of tissue abnormalities.

HIFU is a form of nonionizing radiation, suitable for localizing treatment to small areas, comparable to a grain of rice or sesame seed. The university-developed system images tissue response to the HIFU beam at intervals less than 10 milliseconds apart. These dynamic images serve as feedback for refocusing the energy at the target. Current systems, on the other hand, deliver therapeutic HIFU shots at 2 to 5 second intervals with little or no feedback control while the energy is being applied.

Because Ebbini’s ultrasound methods deliver a more concentrated and precise energy beam, it is considered safer than other radiation treatments. “The advantage of our approach,” says Ebbini, “is that therapeutic exposure is confined to the focal spot without collateral damage to the intervening normal tissues.”

The new processes may have economic advantages as well for patients and health care providers. HIFU equipment, says Ebbini, is less expensive than other imaging techniques, such as MRI. The technology also has the ability to tightly link imaging and therapy, meaning it would be more efficient and precise than MRI or other ultrasound guidance technologies.

ICC, which completed its first funding round in 2009, plans to complete proof-of-concept tests of the technology on pigs, followed by clinical trials and FDA submissions later this year. The company says patent applications have been submitted in the U.S. and abroad.

Read more: Univ. Tests Ultrasound to Diagnose Prostate Cancer

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