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Magnetic resonance imaging-guided focused ultrasound synovectomy
K Foldes1, K Hynynen, S Shortkroff
1Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Objective:
To investigate the feasibility of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided high power focused ultrasound (FUS) to perform synovectomy noninvasively.
Methods:
Five New Zealand white male rabbit knees with experimentally induced arthritis underwent MRI-guided thermal surgery by high power (60 W/10 s) sonication. Evidence of tissue coagulation was monitored during the procedure and confirmed by gross and microscopic evaluation and MRI.
Results:
Partial synovectomy was performed in five animals. Necrotized synovial tissue was observed on gross and microscopic evaluation. Visible signal intensity alterations including high signal intensity on T2-weighted (T2W) images and lack of contrast-enhancement on T1-weighted (T1W) post-contrast, post-sonication images were characteristic and reproducible.
Conclusion:
Our results demonstrate the ability of high power sonication to destroy synovial tissue in vivo.