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Effect of microbubble-enhanced ultrasound on percutaneous ethanol ablation of rat walker-256 tumour

  • Ultrasound
  • Published:
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Abstract

Objectives

Percutaneous ethanol ablation (PEA) is an effective method for treating small liver cancer. Microbubble-enhanced ultrasound (MEUS) can potentially promote PEA by disrupting the tumour’s circulation. In this study, treatment combining MEUS and PEA was performed to find any synergistic effects in tumour ablation.

Methods

Ten rats bearing subcutaneous Walker-256 tumours were treated by MEUS combined with PEA. The other 18 tumour-bearing rats that were treated by MEUS or PEA served as the controls. MEUS was conducted by therapeutic ultrasound (TUS) and microbubble injection. TUS was operated at a frequency of 831 KHz with a pressure amplitude of 4.3 MPa. Tumour blood perfusion was assessed by contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), and the tumour necrosis rate was determined by histological examination.

Results

CEUS showed that the tumour blood perfusion almost vanished in all of the MEUS-treated tumours. The contrast peak intensity dropped 84.8 % in the MEUS + PEA-treated tumours when compared to 46.3 % (p < 0.05) in the PEA-treated tumours 24 h after treatment. The tumour necrosis rate of the combination therapy was 97.50 %, which is much higher than that of the MEUS- (66.2 %) and PEA-treated (81.0 %) tumours.

Conclusion

PEA combined with MEUS can induce a much more complete tumour necrosis.

Key Points

• This experiment demonstrated a novel method for enhancing percutaneous ethanol ablation.

• Microbubble-enhanced therapeutic ultrasound is capable of disrupting tumour circulation.

• Combined therapy of MEUS and PEA can induce more complete necrosis of tumours.

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Abbreviations

CEUS:

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound

HCC:

Hepatocellular carcinoma

MEUS:

Microbubble-enhanced ultrasound

PEA:

Percutaneous ethanol ablation

SD:

Sprague–Dawley

TACE:

Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization

TUS:

Therapeutic ultrasound

US:

Ultrasound

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Acknowledgments

The scientific guarantor of this publication is Dr. Zheng Liu.

The authors of this manuscript declare no relationships with any companies whose products or services may be related to the subject matter of the article. This study has received funding from the National High-tech R&D Program of China (grant no. 2012AA022702), the Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 81227004, 81301239) Chongqing and Science and Technology Project (grant no. CSTC2011GGB10002). Dr. Cai (a statistician from Third Military Medical University) kindly provided statistical advice for this manuscript. Institutional review board approval was obtained. Approval from the institutional animal care committee was obtained. No study subjects or cohorts have been previously reported. Methodology: experimental, performed at one institution.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ultrasound, Xinqiao Hospital, The Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China

    Wenhong Gao, Lu Qiao, Li Zhang & Zheng Liu

  2. Department of Ultrasound, 302 Military Hospital, Beijing, China

    Yuejuan Gao

  3. Institute of Acoustics, Key Laboratory of Modern Acoustics, Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    Dong Zhang & Juan Tu

  4. Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA

    Feng Xie

Authors
  1. Wenhong Gao
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  2. Lu Qiao
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  3. Yuejuan Gao
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  4. Li Zhang
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  5. Dong Zhang
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  6. Juan Tu
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  7. Zheng Liu
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  8. Feng Xie
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zheng Liu.

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Gao, W., Qiao, L., Gao, Y. et al. Effect of microbubble-enhanced ultrasound on percutaneous ethanol ablation of rat walker-256 tumour. Eur Radiol 26, 3017–3025 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-015-4153-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-015-4153-x

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