title: Blood vessel rupture by cavitation.
abstract: Cavitation is thought to be one mechanism for vessel rupture during shock wave lithotripsy treatment. However, just how cavitation induces vessel rupture remains unknown. In this work, a high-speed photomicrography system was set up to directly observe the dynamics of bubbles inside blood vessels in ex vivo rat mesenteries. Vascular rupture correlating to observed bubble dynamics were examined by imaging bubble extravasation and dye leakage. The high-speed images show that bubble expansion can cause vessel distention, and bubble collapse can lead to vessel invagination. Liquid jets were also observed to form. Our results suggest that all three mechanisms, vessel distention, invagination and liquid jets, can contribute to vessel rupture.
authors.affiliation: Center for Industrial and Medical Ultrasound, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, 1013 NE 40th Street, Seattle, Washington 98105, USA.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Andrew A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Brayman
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Matula
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000293:injuries*; D008096:Lithotripsy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008643:Mesentery / Q000293:injuries*; D051381:Rats; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley