Heart attack is a life-threatening condition, requiring urgent intervention to restore the blood flow of the blocked artery. Current standard treatment, the stent procedure, significantly improved the prognosis but a major limitation remains, where only 43% of heart muscle is salvaged. Sonothrombolysis is the application of ultrasound whilst infusing microbubbles. Our Australian pilot clinical trial demonstrated that STL with 2D echo can salvage more myocardium than sham procedure (71% vs 53%). The superiority of 3D echo over 2D has been proven in diagnosis but not in therapeutic indication. 3D echo can deliver sonothrombolysis more efficiently than 2D as 3D covers the entire heart every single beat. Accordingly, this proposal aims to determine whether 3D sonothrombolysis has better efficacy and safety than 2D one. If successful, we will apply for further large funding schemes to perform a full-scale, multicentre prospective RCT to inform clinical guidelines and change clinical practice.
Last updated17 January 2023