>
Peter Schiff: This Is a Sequel to 2008 and Like All Sequels It Will Be Worse Than the Original
The Fake 'Food as Medicine' Agenda
The Best Way to Protect US Troops in Syria by Ron Paul
How to Create a Food Forest in Your Backyard
Musk expects Tesla Bot to be a much bigger business than its cars
Autoflight breaks Joby's world record for the longest eVTOL flight
How does Starlink Satellite Internet Work?
SpaceX Starlink Version 2 Mini Will Have 4X Version 1.5 Capacity
Blue Origin Making Solar Cells from Lunar Regolith
Preparing to keep people alive on medical equipment when SHTF hits. Try to solve this problem.
By bringing ultrasound into the mix, scientists at the University of Kansas have demonstrated a new take on this treatment that relies on exploding microbubbles to destroy plaque with greater safety and efficiency, while hinting at some unique long-term advantages.
The novel ultrasound-assisted laser technique builds off what's known as laser angioplasty, an existing treatment designed to improve blood flow in patients suffering from plaque buildup that narrows the arteries. Where more conventional treatments such as stents and balloon angioplasty expand the artery and compress the plaque, laser angioplasty destroys it to eliminate the blockage.
The laser is inserted into the artery with a catheter, and the thermal energy it generates turns water in the artery into a vapor bubble that expands, collapses and breaks up the plaque. Because this technique calls for high-power lasers, it has the potential to perforate or dissect the artery, something the scientists are looking to avoid by using low-power lasers instead.
They were able to do so in pork belly samples and ex vivo samples of artery plaque with the help of ultrasound. The method uses a low-power nanosecond pulsed laser to generate microbubbles, and applying ultrasound to the artery then causes these microbubbles to expand, collapse and disrupt the plaque.