Molecular and histological effects of MR-guided pulsed focused ultrasound to the rat heart

Background Image-guided high intensity focused ultrasoundhas been used as an extracorporealcardiac pacing tool and to enhance homing of stem cells to targeted tissues. However, molecular changes in the myocardium after sonication have not been widely investigated. Magnetic-resonance (MR)-guided pulsed focused ultrasound (pFUS) was targeted to the rat myocardium over a range of pressures and the microenvironmental and histological effects were evaluated over time.