Patent ID: 11883679
Assignee: NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
Field: Pharmaceuticals (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC A  B | IPC A  B

Claim 12:
13. A method of treating blood clots, the method comprising:
administering magnetic microbubbles (MMBs) intravascularly to a patient in need of treatment for a blood clot in a blood vessel, the MMBs having a gas core and a layer of superparamagnetic nanoparticles around the gas core;
localizing the MMBs to a target clot region in the blood vessel by application of a magnetic field;
generating a rotational magnetic field in the target clot region to retain the MMBs in the target clot region and enhance ultrasound-induced movement of the MMBs; and
using an ultrasound transducer to acoustically activate the MMBs to generate movement of the MMBs within the blood vessel in the target clot region, wherein the ultrasound transducer generates an acoustic frequency of about 100 kHz to about 5 MHz, has an ultrasound duty cycle of about 0.5% to about 25%, and has an input voltage of about 10 Vpp to 250 Vpp, and wherein movement of the MMBs induced by the ultrasound is increased under the rotational magnetic field, such that the movement of the MMBs is effective to reduce the blood clot in size.