A Pre-clinical Study of the Response Threshold of Intact and Transected Nerves to Stimulation by Transcutaneous Intense Focused Ultrasound

Abstract

We used diagnostic ultrasound imaging to guide individual bursts (0.1 s) of 2 MHz intense focused ultrasound (iFU) to determine the sensitivity of intact and transected nerves. We found that all nerves had greater sensitivity to iFU stimulation than surrounding muscle. Intact nerves from healthy volunteers had less sensitivity to iFU stimulation (272 ± 35 W/cm² [median ± standard error]) than transected nerves (19 ± 37 W/cm²). Intact, contralateral nerves of amputees dichotomized naturally into two groups-one very sensitive to iFU stimulation (6 ± 2 W/cm²) and one relatively insensitive (539 ± 19 W/cm²), compared with the intact nerves of healthy volunteers. Our study demonstrates the ability of iFU under ultrasound image guidance to stimulate deep, intact and transected peripheral nerves. It also highlights differences in the receptivity to ultrasound stimulation of the peripheral nerves of amputees versus healthy volunteers.

Keywords: Image-guided intense focused ultrasound; Intense focused ultrasound; Limb amputation; Nerve stimulation.