Pressure measurement of geometrically curved ultrasound transducer array for spatially specific stimulation of the vagus nerve

Pressure measurement of geometrically curved ultrasound transducer array for spatially specific stimulation of the vagus nerve

Kawasaki, S. (TU Delft Electronic Components, Technology and Materials)
Giagka, Vasiliki (TU Delft Bio-Electronics; Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM)
de Haas, M. (Philips Innovation Services)
Louwerse, M. (Philips Research)
Henneken, V. (Philips Research)
van Heesch, C. (Philips Research)
Dekker, R. (Philips Research)

2019

Vagus nerve stimulators currently on the market can treat epilepsy and depression. Recent clinical trials show the potential for vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) to treat epilepsy, autoimmune disease, and traumatic brain injury. As we explore the benefits of VNS, it is expected that more possibilities for a new treatment will emerge in the future. However, existing VNS relies on electrical stimulation, whose limited selectivity (due to its poor spatial resolution) does not allow for any control over which therapeutic effect to induce. We hypothesize that by localizing the stimulation to fascicular level within the vagus nerve with focused ultrasound (US), it is possible to induce selective therapeutic effects with less side effects. A geometrically curve US transducer array that is small enough to wrap around the vagus nerve was fabricated. An experiment was conducted in water, with 48 US elements curved in a 1 mm radius and excited at 15 MHz to test the focusing capabilities of the device. The results show that the geometrical curvature focused the US to an area with a width and height of 110 μm and 550 μm. This will be equivalent to only 2.1% of the cross section of the vagus nerve, showing the potential of focused US to stimulate individual neuronal fibers within the vagus nerve selectively.

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:00e4b451-2f23-4871-a281-6945b238192a

https://doi.org/10.1109/NER.2019.8717064

IEEE

978-1-5386-7922-7

2019 9th International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering

NER'19: The 9th International IEEE EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, 2019-03-20 → 2019-03-23, The Hilton San Francisco Union Square Hotel, San Francisco, United States

Institutional Repository

conference paper

© 2019 S. Kawasaki, Vasiliki Giagka, M. de Haas, M. Louwerse, V. Henneken, C. van Heesch, R. Dekker