Intracardiac acoustic radiation force impulse imaging: a novel imaging method for intraprocedural evaluation of radiofrequency ablation lesions.

David P. Bradway is a research scientist in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Duke University. He earned his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering in 2013 from Duke. Afterward, he was a guest postdoc at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), supported by a Whitaker International Program Scholarship. He has conducted research internships at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Volcano Corporation, and Siemens Healthcare, working on ultrasound research since 2002.

My laboratory develops and evaluates novel ultrasonic imaging methods. Current projects involve high resolutioon imaging of the breast and mechanical characterization of the breast and cardiovascular system. We conduct phantom, animal, ex vivo and in vivo trials. Current clinical trials involve imaging of soft and hard vascular plaques and mecahnical imaging of breast lesions.

My research is primarily in the area of advanced instrumentation for diagnosis and treatment of electrophysiological problems. This research covers two primary organ systems: the heart and the brain.

One thrust of the cardiac-based work is centered on atrial fibrillation and in particular on very low energy atrial defibrillation strategies. The goal is to produce a device that can defibrillate the atria with a painless series of electrical impulses. A second area of interest is the study of the biophysics of radio frequency ablation of the heart. A third avenue of research in the cardiac area is the development of new instruments and techniques for tracking interventional devices within the body without the use of ionizing radiation. These devices primarily rely on ultrasound technology. There is a strong collaborative effort in this area with the Duke Ultrasound group in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. The long term goal of this work is to develop technology to deliver image-guided therapy to target tissues in the heart and other organs.

In neuroengineering, we are currently developing a "brainchip" that would telemeter information recorded directly from neurons in the brain to a remote device. This IC based technology is being developed for application in neuro-prosthetic or brain controlled devices. There is a close collaboration on this project between our lab and the laboratory of Dr. Miguel Nicolelis the Department of Neurobiology. We are also developing advanced neural recoding systems to use on unrestrained, untethered animals as they learn to perform certain tasks.