Effect of intraluminal liquefaction on aspiration catheter clot ingestion

Ascertain whether creating centrally located liquefied regions within clot material using histotripsy inside a hollow cylindrical transducer at the tip of an aspiration catheter reduces mechanical resistance, facilitates clot deformation, and thereby enhances clot ingestion under vacuum.

Background

The proposed clinical motivation is to assist aspiration thrombectomy by degrading the mechanical integrity of clot material inside the catheter tip to prevent corking and improve ingestion. While the paper demonstrates that liquefied lesions can be produced within clots inside the HCT lumen, it does not test whether such intraluminal liquefaction actually improves deformation and aspiration performance.

Determining this causal link is crucial to validate the therapeutic value of integrating HCT-driven histotripsy with aspiration catheters in stroke, PE, and DVT applications.