VENOUS THROMBOSIS GENERATION BY MEANS OF HIGH-INTENSITY FOCUSED ULTRASOUND

Sclerotherapy of superficial varicose veins is now performed with chem ical agents since physical agents have given only poor clinical result s. We investigated the possibility of using high intensity focused ult rasound energy to achieve this goal in an animal model, the rat femora l vein. A specialty designed probe delivering ultrasonic energy at a c entral frequency of 7.31 MHz was constructed and evaluated. Femoral ve ins of six rats were surgically exposed to a set of between four and s even 3-s exposures at 1-mm increments at a power level of 167 W/cm(2). At 2 days following the irradiation, control veins were patent while occlusive thrombus was documented by Doppler flow and histological stu dies in all six of the irradiated veins. No damage to the surrounding soft tissues was noted. We conclude that high-intensity focused ultras ound can be used to induce thrombosis in this animal model.