Graham Collins   

BMED PhD Thesis Proposal   

Date: 01/21/2021   

Time: 2-4 PM   

Location: Zoom (https://emory.zoom.us/j/95746423935)   

Faculty Advisor:   

Dr. Brooks Lindsey   

Committee Members:    

Dr. Zachary Bercu (Emory Interventional Radiology)   

Dr. Levent Degertekin (GT)   

Dr. Jaydev Desai (GT)   

Dr. Stanislav Emelianov (GT)   

Title: Forward-viewing ultrasound guidance to improve navigation of a robotic guidewire for treatment of vascular disease   

Abstract: Approximately 4% of Americans have peripheral artery disease and one or more chronic total occlusions (CTOs). Current devices for minimally invasive therapies lack integrated imaging for visualizing anatomy to allow the crossing of CTOs, and more than one fifth of these procedures fail, frequently resulting in loss of limb. To improve navigation, we propose the development of a vascular robotic guidewire system with forward-viewing ultrasound guidance by: (1) developing an ultrasound transducer consisting of a single active element with one electrical cable for use in two frequency modes (15 and 30 MHz), providing both sub-millimeter resolution and >30 mm penetration depth, (2) creating a processing pipeline for synthetic aperture reconstruction and adaptive blood flow imaging to visualize and segment the environment in front of the steerable guidewire, and (3) testing performance of the developed system in flow phantoms with patient-specific anatomies and cadaver limbs with vessel disease. With integrated forward-viewing imaging, the interventionalist could cross lesions that cannot currently be crossed, increasing the procedural success rate and salvaging limbs.