Ultrasonic actuation of a fine-needle improves biopsy yield

Emanuele Perra,Tuomas Puranen,Eetu Lampsijärvi,Muhammad Arif,Edward Hæggström,Kenneth P H Pritzker,Gonçalo Barreto,Heikki J Nieminen

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-87303-x

Emanuele Perra, Tuomas Puranen + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87303-x

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Abstract

Despite the ubiquitous use over the past 150 years, the functions of the current medical needle are facilitated only by mechanical shear and cutting by the needle tip, i.e. the lancet. In this study, we demonstrate how nonlinear ultrasonics (NLU) extends the functionality of the medical needle far beyond its present capability. The NLU actions were found to be localized to the proximity of the needle tip, the SonoLancet, but the effects extend to several millimeters from the physical needle boundary. The observed nonlinear phenomena, transient cavitation, fluid streams, translation of micro- and nanoparticles and atomization, were quantitatively characterized. In the fine-needle biopsy application, the SonoLancet contributed to obtaining tissue cores with an increase in tissue yield by 3–6× in different tissue types compared to conventional needle biopsy technique using the same 21G needle. In conclusion, the SonoLancet could be of interest to several other medical applications, including drug or gene delivery, cell modulation, and minimally invasive surgical procedures.

Highlights

Despite the ubiquitous use over the past 150 years, the functions of the current medical needle are facilitated only by mechanical shear and cutting by the needle tip, i.e. the lancet
We employed an axially translating Langevin transducer as a sound source, which was coupled to an S-shaped waveguide connected to a medical needle (Fig. 1A(1))
As a consequence of the wave amplification, the needle tip is made to act as a dipole-like sound source oscillating at a large displacement amplitude (Fig. 1D), exhibiting considerably greater time-averaged acoustic intensity at the needle tip (Fig. 1B(1,2)) than elsewhere near the needle lumen, which carries the energy

Summary

Introduction

Despite the ubiquitous use over the past 150 years, the functions of the current medical needle are facilitated only by mechanical shear and cutting by the needle tip, i.e. the lancet. A small lance[2], is widely employed in medical cutting and piercing devices, e.g. hypodermic needles, surgical tools and tissue sampling needle biopsy devices. While not extensively studied, previous literature suggests that some needle functions still present limitations with regard to pain (about 10% of the population suffers from needle phobia[7] and 3–10% of the population has been estimated to avoid medical care because of the fear of n eedles8–10), precision[11,12], spatial localization[13] and, for needle biopsies, adequacy with regard to quality and quantity of tissue y ield[14]. The NLU can generate acoustic force fields providing a precise manipulation of entities selectively closer or at a farther distance from the sound source

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