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中国物理学会期刊

组织内包膜微泡声空化动力学及其力学效应分析

CSTR: 32037.14.aps.70.20210194

Acoustic cavitation of encapsulated microbubble and its mechanical effect in soft tissue

CSTR: 32037.14.aps.70.20210194
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  • 声空化机械效应是聚焦超声治疗的重要物理机制. 以脂类包膜微泡/纳米相变液滴为空化核可显著地增强空化效应, 本文耦合空化动力学、组织和脂类包膜黏弹性模型, 构建了组织内脂类包膜微泡声空化动力学模型, 数值分析了微泡声空化动力学行为以及周围组织内机械应力的时空分布规律, 并探究了包膜材料、组织黏弹性和驱动声压等关键参数的影响. 包膜和组织黏弹性都将抑制微泡振动, 但组织黏弹性的抑制作用更大. 组织内机械应力在膨胀阶段为挤压应力, 而在收缩阶段和反弹初始阶段为拉伸应力, 且应力局部分布于微泡壁附近, 随着距离增大而显著减小, 其中拉伸应力衰减率明显更大. 包膜黏弹性可减小应力, 但声压较大时, 应力减小可忽略不计. 应力随着组织弹性增大而减小, 随着组织黏度增大而先增大后减小, 随着声压增大而增大. 本研究可为进一步阐释聚焦超声治疗中组织机械损伤的内在机制奠定重要理论基础.

     

    Ultrasound-induced cavitation in the viscoelastic biological tissues has attracted considerable attention due to its mechanical bio-effects, such as cell sonoporation, hemolysis, vascular disruption and tissue erosion. Cavitation can exert strong mechanical stresses on the surrounding tissues during the rapid bubble growth and collapse. The occurrence of cavitation needs the ultrasound exposure exceeding a certain acoustic pressure threshold, and the cavitation threshold is very high in most tissues, probably causing undesirable side-effects. Introducing artificial cavitation nuclei, e.g., microbubbles and nanodroplets stabilized with a shell such as albumin, lipids or polymers, into the targeted region can effectively reduce the cavitation threshold and significantly enhance the cavitation effects. However, neither the cavitation dynamics of an encapsulated microbubble nor the cavitation-induced stress field around the bubble in a soft tissue is quite clear. In this study, a comprehensive numerical model is developed to describe the dynamics of a lipid-shelled microbubble in vivo and quantify the cavitation-induced mechanical stress in the tissue. Considering the nonlinear changes of both shell viscosity and elasticity, a Gilmore model that has been considered as the most developed and realistic cavitation model is coupled with the Zener viscoelastic model for precisely describing tissue viscoelastic behavior with both creep recovery and stress relaxation of tissue. The developed model has an advantage of accurately describing the bubble behaviors in different biological tissues at high ultrasound intensities, especially for the bubble collapse. Furthermore, the spatiotemporal evolution of mechanical stress in the surrounding tissue generated by the cavitation bubble is investigated. Finally, the effects of encapsulated shell, elasticity modulus and viscosity of tissue as well as ultrasound amplitude are examined. The results show that the viscoelasticity of encapsulated shell and tissue both inhibit the bubble oscillations, and the tissue viscoelasticity has a larger inhibition effect. During the bubble oscillation, the compressive (negative) stress is generated in the tissue with the bubble growing and it continuously increases until it reaches a maximum value at a maximum radius, while the tensile (positive) stress is generated at the stage of bubble collapse and initial stage of bubble rebound due to the restoration of deformed tissue. The stress magnitude is greatest near the bubble wall and decreases rapidly with depth extending into the surrounding tissue. By contrast, the tensile stress decreases at a higher rate than the compressive stress. The encapsulated bubble presents a smaller stress in the tissue, but the decrease of the stress can be ignored at large acoustic pressures. Moreover, the stress decreases with the increase of tissue elasticity modulus, whereas it first increases and then decreases with tissue viscosity increasing, showing a maximum at 15 mPa·s. The increasing of the ultrasound amplitude enhances the bubble oscillations and consequently increases the stress in the tissue. This study is helpful in understanding the bubble dynamics and cavitation-induced mechanical stress of an encapsulated microbubble in soft tissue, which is essential for a safe and precise ultrasound therapy.

     

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