Ultrasound neural interface enabling acute spinal cord monitoring and blood flow modulation
The days following decompression surgery for acute spinal cord injury (SCI) are a critical period for postoperative monitoring. After wound closure, clinicians lack on-demand access to local spinal cord morphology and hemodynamics, and care therefore remains guided largely by systemic surrogates rather than direct postoperative insight into the injured cord. We present the Multimodal Ultrasound System for Injury Care (MUSIC), a temporary epidural ultrasound neural interface placed during standard decompression surgery to enable postoperative brightness-mode imaging, Doppler-derived hemodynamic monitoring, and future device-integrated ultrasound actuation. Across simulations, benchtop, human cadaveric, and porcine studies, MUSIC enabled on-demand visualization of cord structure, hematoma tracking, detection and longitudinal tracking of localized Doppler flow signatures attributable to the sulcal artery region, and, in healthy pigs, proof-of-concept focused ultrasound modulation of blood-flow velocity. MUSIC establishes a temporary postoperative acoustic interface that provides spinal cord information to inform monitoring, future management, and localized intervention strategies after SCI.
Authors
- Kelly Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1144-7882)
- Betty Tyler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9800-6969)
- Ryan Patrick Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2517-9559)
- Meghana Bhimreddy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7570-4094)
- Andrew M. Hersh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1755-3974)
- A. Daniel Davidar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1508-3449)
- Ian Suk
- Siavash Shirzadeh Barough (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3903-8343)
- Arjun Kumar Menta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6371-6052)
- Abdul Karim Ghaith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9600-609X)
- Francisco Chavez
- Max Kerensky (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-0138-8218)
- Joshua Punnoose (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3008-5140)
- Victor M. Quiroz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0819-368X)
- John N. Theodore (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1901-3503)
- Nicholas Theodore (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5355-2683)
- Haley G. Abramson
- Amir Manbachi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0206-5230)
- Angelica F. Lopez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4163-2915)
- Kelley M. Kempski Leadingham
- Mohammad Hossein Amini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9562-2173)
- Siddharth Krishnan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9570-0186)
- Carly Weber-Levine (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2057-8419)
- Stuart J. Bauer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0490-0930)
- Patrick J. Kramer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0635-0629)
- Avisha Kumar
- Ritvik Jillala (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3061-7338)
- Ali Mohammadabadi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9124-3942)
- Joshua C. Doloff (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4323-3264)
- Nitish V. Thakor (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9981-9395)
- Jonathan S. Maltz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8281-255X)
- Denis Routkevitch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7144-6347)
- Osamah M. Zmily (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4727-2938)
- Vikas N. Vattipally (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-6920-2311)
- Constantin Smit (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5259-7601)
- Leonard Steger
- Yuxin Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3897-417X)
- Mark Luciano
- Kyle Morrison (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5348-5987)
- David Kopala (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5553-1276)
- Kayla Robinson
- Laura Roy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6769-4217)
Institutions
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Becton Dickinson (United States) (US)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- Sonic Concepts (United States) (US)
- FujiFilm VisualSonics (Canada) (CA)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2026-11-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aeg2342
- Primary Topic
- Spinal Cord Injury Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00