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Abstract #0037

MR-Guided Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption by Transcranial Focused Ultrasound: Preclinical Testing on a Trans-Human Skull Pig Model

Yuexi Huang 1 , Ryan Alkins 1 , Michael L. Schwartz 2 , and Kullervo Hynynen 1,3

1 Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada, 2 Division of Neurosurgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada, 3 Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound has been demonstrated to reversibly disrupt the blood-brain barrier for targeted drug delivery. Many small and large animal models have been developed to investigate the effectiveness and characteristics of BBB disruptions. However, in translation for a clinical trial, the treatment protocol needs to be optimized according to properties of human skulls and capabilities of the current clinical prototype device. In addition, a cavitation-based safety mechanism needs to be tested in vivo for minimizing risks of hemorrhage. In this study, a BBB disruption protocol was developed in a trans-human skull pig model with human applications in mind. The trans-human skull pig model demonstrated the feasibility and safety of the ExAblate system for BBB disruptions in preparation for human applications.

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