Investigating the interaction between acoustically stimulated microbubbles and fibrin clots

While it is well established that ultrasound stimulated microbubbles can potentiate thrombolysis, the mechanisms of action are poorly understood. The objective of this work was to gain a more fundamental understanding of how acoustically stimulated microbubbles interact with and potentially degrade fibrin clots. Owing to their optical transparency, the use of fibrin clots allowed to optically observe microbubbles interacting with the clot boundary and any resultant disruption of the fluorescently tagged fibrin network. It was found that microbubbles could readily penetrate into fibrin clots with velocities up to 0.2 m/s and to depths related to the number of pulses applied. At lower pressures (0.2-0.55 MPa), microbubbles as small as 3μm were observed to penetrate, whereas higher pressures (>0.9 MPa) caused the penetration of larger microbubbles (10-30μm), formed by coalescence prior to entry. In some cases, patent 'tunnels' remained along the path taken by penetrating microbubbles. Tunnel diameters ranged...