Abstract #5408

MRI-guided Focused Ultrasound to Improve Drug Delivery in Spinal Cord Injury

Donna J. Cross¹, Allison H. Payne¹, Amanda J. Stump¹, Henrik Odéen ¹, Megan A. Ostlie¹, Ethan C. Reichert ², Chloe G. Cross¹, Yoshimi Anzai¹, and Gregory W. Hawryluk²

¹Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States, ²Department of Neurosurgery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States

Spinal cord injury (SCI) affects over 17,000 individuals each year in the United States, and most patients are left with some permanent paralysis. MRI-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS), when applied to the spinal cord with microbubbles to generate sonoporation, can transiently open the blood spinal cord barrier for effective drug delivery by breaking the glial scar. We used MRgFUS to increase permeability in the blood spinal cord barrier in a SCI rat model. Rats that underwent an MRgFUS procedure showed increased contrast caudal to the injury site, indicating drugs could potentially permeate these regions and assist with axonal regrowth.

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