A New RF Heating Strategy for Thermal Treatment of Atherosclerosis

Restenosis remains a challenge for the treatment of atherosclerosis due to the damage of the endothelial layer and induced proliferation of the smooth muscle cell.

A new RF heating strategy was proposed to selectively ablate the atherosclerosis plaque, and to thermally inhibit the proliferation of smooth muscle cells, while keeping the endothelial cells intact. To achieve the goal, an internal cooling agent and distributed electrodes have been integrated in the new designed balloon catheter to focus the shape conformal energy onto the plaque shape. A three-dimensional (3-D) model with experimentally fitted parameters has been established to demonstrate the heating ability of the design and evaluate the microelectrodes configurations for different plaque geometries.

The 3-D shape of the lesions resulting from different electrodes settings is obtained. It is found that by individual control of the micro-electrodes, special shapes of the lesions can be formed, which can match the eccentric crescent plaques. Besides, through changing of the polarity of the electrodes, separate lesions can be reached. This suggests the possibility for treatment of disconnected plaques in situ.

By the control of RF heating and convection coefficient of the internal cooling agent, a targeted heating region away from the inner surface of the blood vessel can be realized.

This study has illustrated the possibility of achieving a precision thermal treatment of atherosclerosis in favor of inhibiting further restenosis.