One of the most wide-spread medical applications of pulsed ultrasound is detection and remote contactless fragmentation of kidney stones.
Ultrasonic diagnostics of kidney stones
Kidney stones have a higher acoustic impedance compared to the surrounding soft tissues and therefore effectively scatter the acoustic waves incident on them. In this case, not only longitudinal but also shear waves are induced inside the kidney stone, and microscopic gas bubbles can form and experience nonlinear oscillations on the surface of the stone under the influence of short diagnostic pulses. This makes it possible to develop sensitive methods for kidney stones diagnostics.
Ultrasonic fractionation of kidney stones
By focusing high-amplitude ultrasound waves on a kidney stone through the skin, it is possible to induce its fragmentation without the need for surgical intervention. An example of such a procedure is the method of kidney stones fractionation with the use of shock waves, which has long been used in clinical practice – extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy. The main patterns of occurrence of destructive stresses can be explained within the framework of traditional acoustic models. The achieved understanding of fractionation mechanisms allows developing new methods of ultrasonic kidney stone fragmentation, in particular, using short quasi-sinusoidal pulses.
Ultrasonic propulsion of kidney stones
The kidney stone fragments obtained as a result of lithotripsy are usually small enough and can be passed out from the body naturally. However, sometimes the fragments get stuck in the kidney and become crystallization centers for new stones. To address this issue, ultrasonic propulsion of such fragments from the kidney has recently been proposed. The method uses the ability of ultrasound to exert pressure on objects – the phenomenon of acoustic radiation force (ARF). The use of ARF makes it possible to remotely move stones in the kidney (manipulation), and with a special selection of the acoustic field structure, it is also possible to rotate the stones.
LIMU tasks
- Diagnostics, manipulation and fragmentation of kidney stones
- Numerical calculations of the impact of complex beams on millimeter objects
- Verification experiments
Activity types
- numerical modeling
- experiments with phantom kidney stones
Contacts
Details
- in our lecture
- in our talk
- in our invited lecture by Wayne Kreider
- in a short video
- in the papers below
[1] Acoustic Radiation Force: A Review of Four Mechanisms for Biomedical Applications / A. P. Sarvazyan, O. V. Rudenko, M. Fatemi // IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control. — 2021. — Vol. 68, no. 11 — P. 3261-3269. DOI: 10.1109/TUFFC.2021.3112505
[2] Burst wave lithotripsy and acoustic manipulation of stones / Chen TT, Samson PC, Sorensen MD, Bailey MR. // Curr Opin Urol. — 2020. — Vol. 30, no. 2 — P. 149-156. DOI: 10.1097/MOU.0000000000000727
[3] Радиоимпульсная ультразвуковая литотрипсия – новая ступень эволюции дистанционной ударноволновой литотрипсии / Гаджиев Н.К., Горелов Д.С., Иванов А.О., Семенякин И.В., Маликиев И.Е., Обидняк В.М., Крючковенко Я.И., Петров С.Б., Григорьев В.Е. // Вестник урологии. 2021;9(3):127-134. DOI: 10.21886/2308-6424-2021-9-3-127-134
[4] Noninvasive acoustic manipulation of objects in a living body / M. A. Ghanem, A. D. Maxwell, Y. N. Wang et al. // Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. — 2020. — Vol. 117, no. 29. — P. 16848–16855. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2001779117
[5] Method for measuring acoustic radiation force of a focused ultrasound beam acting on an elastic sphere / L. M. Kotelnikova, S. A. Tsysar, D. A. Nikolaev, O. A. Sapozhnikov // Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. — 2025. — Vol. 157, no. 2. — P. 1391–1402. DOI: 10.1121/10.0035939
[6] Improving burst wave lithotripsy effectiveness for small stones and fragments by increasing frequency: theoretical modeling and ex vivo study / M. R. Bailey, A. D. Maxwell, S. Cao et al. // Journal of Endourology. — 2022. — Vol. 36, no. 7. — P. 996–1003. DOI: 10.1089/end.2021.0714
[7] Maximizing mechanical stress in small urinary stones during burst wave lithotripsy / Sapozhnikov O. A., Maxwell A. D., Bailey M. R. // Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. — 2021. — Vol. 150, no. 6. — P. 4203–4212. DOI: 10.1121/10.0008902
[8] Shock formation and nonlinear saturation effects in the ultrasound field of a diagnostic curvilinear probe / M. M. Karzova, P. V. Yuldashev, O. A. Sapozhnikov et al. // Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. — 2017. — Vol. 141, no. 4. — P. 2327–2337. DOI: 10.1121/1.497926