Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Development Of A Numerical Model To Simulate Pressure Distributions In Ultrasound Angioplasty, Graham Gavin, Garrett Mcguinness, Finbar Dolan, M.S. Hashmi

Conference Papers

Ultrasound Angioplasty has been shown to be effective in the removal and re-canalising of blockages in arteries (Siegel RJ, 1993). The ultrasound is delivered via a wire waveguide to the lesion location. The wire, generally, has a ball-tip at the distal end to increase transmission of the ultrasound to the surrounding fluid by causing the ball-tip to oscillate between 20– 45kHz and with displacements of up to 100mm peak-to-peak (Atar, 1999 and Yock, 1997). Pressure waves, micro streaming, cavitation and direct contact with the oscillating ball-tip affect the blockage. Most work to date has concentrated on a spherical ball-tip geometry …