Endobronchial Closure for Peripheral Pulmonary Air Leakage.

INTRODUCTION: A minimally invasive alternative to surgery for treating pneumothorax has been developed, aiming to reduce risks while maintaining efficacy. This study conducted basic experiments using ex vivo and in vivo pig lung employing a super-thin catheter for treatment. This new device injects fibrin glue directly into the responsible lesion to close the air leak, which has two features: thin design and double-lumen. METHODS: The experimental setup involved utilizing trachea and both lung specimens from pigs under positive pressure ventilation. To simulate pneumothorax, artificial fistulas were created on the lung surfaces. The super-thin catheter, guided through a bronchoscope near the fistula, was used to embolize the peripheral bronchus by injecting a fibrin preparation. Then, an air leak test was conducted afterward to assess the efficacy of the treatment. Additionally, a similar pneumothorax model was induced in alive pig under general anesthesia to evaluate its curability. RESULTS: In the extracted pig lungs, embolization was performed in 21 cases, resulting in the cessation of air leaks in 19 cases, corresponding to a 90.5% cure rate. Notably, no major adverse events occurred with the treatment devices. Similarly, in living pigs, pneumothorax was successfully treated, with no recurrence observed up to the seventh postoperative day. CONCLUSION: The novel treatment device utilizing a super-thin catheter offers a minimally invasive and highly curative option for pneumothorax. These promising results suggest the potential for further development and human clinical trials, which could revolutionize the treatment of pneumothorax, reducing risks and improving outcomes.

Characteristics of smooth muscle cells' shape and proliferation rate in novel short-term thermal angioplasty ex vivo and in vitro.

We investigated the influences on the smooth muscle cells of temporally heated arterial walls in both ex vivo and in vitro study to determine the optimum heat parameter of novel short-term thermal angioplasty, Photo-thermo Dynamic Balloon Angioplasty (PTDBA). Arterial heating dilatation was performed by the prototype PTDBA balloon ex vivo. We found that the smooth muscle cells in the vessel wall were stretch-fixed after the heating dilatation ex vivo. The stretch-fixing rate of these cells was increased with the temperature rise in the balloon of PTDBA from 60 °C to 70 °C. We measured the proliferation rate of the stretch-fixed smooth muscle cells, which were extracted from porcine arteries, on specially designed culture equipment in vitro. It was observed that the proliferation rate was inhibited at 20 % stretching compared to 10 % stretching. We think the stretch-fixing of the smooth muscle cells might not be harmful for PTDBA performances.

The laser driven short-term heating balloon catheter: Relation between the chronic neointimal hyperplasia formation and thermal damage to arterial smooth muscle cells.

We proposed a novel laser-driven short-term heating angioplasty to realize restenosis-suppressive angioplasty for peripheral artery disease. In this study, we investigated the chronic intimal hyperplasia formation after the short-term heating dilatation in vivo, as well as the thermal damage calculation on arterial smooth muscle cells (SMCs). The prototype short-term heating balloon catheter with 5.0, 5.5, 6.0 mm φ in balloon diameter and 25 mm in balloon length were employed. The short-term heating dilatation was performed in porcine iliac arteries with dilatation conditions of 75°C (N=4) and 65°C (N=5) as peak balloon temperature, 18 ± 4s as heating duration, 3.5 atm as balloon dilatation pressure. Four weeks after the balloon dilatation, the balloon-dilated artery segments were extracted and were stained with HE and picrosirius red for histological observation. In the case of 75°C as the peak balloon temperature, neointimal hyperplasia formation was significantly reduced. In this case, the SMCs density in the artery media measured from the HE-stained specimen was 20% lower than that in the reference artery. According to the thermal damage calculation, it was estimated that the SMCs lethality in artery media after the short-term heating angioplasty was 20% in the case of 75°C as the peak balloon temperature. We demonstrated that the short-term heating dilatation reduced the number of SMCs in artery media. We think this SMCs reduction might contribute to the suppression of chronic neointimal hyperplasia.

The laser driven heating balloon catheter: vessel dilatation characteristics.

We studied on the dilatation characteristics of our new angioplasty, photo-thermo dynamic balloon (PTDB) angioplasty, which provides short-term heating (15s, 50-70 degrees C) dilatation by the combination of laser heat generator and fluid perfusion. In this study, we employed the ex vivo experiments to demonstrate the feasibility of our PTDB angioplasty with extracted porcine carotid artery. Balloon temperature and heating duration were easily controlled with the laser power and irradiation duration. Arterial dilatation was performed with the prototype PTDB catheter (3mm in diameter) ex vivo, sufficient dilation was attained with low dilatation pressure (2atm) that is lower than the limit pressure of elastic region (8atm in this case). The principal of our PTDB angioplasty that was based on the experimental results was dilatation in elastic region, while traditional POBA was accompanied with plastic deformation of artery. It is predicted that successful way of PTDB dilatation was attributed to collagen softening. Collagen coagulation and/or restructure after the heating dilatation might suspend the dilated arterial lumen. We demonstrated the feasibility of our PTDB angioplasty. We think collagen denaturation degree may be the important factor in this methodology.