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Dan Leotta

Senior Engineer

Email

leotta@uw.edu

Phone

206-616-6787

Education

B.S. Bioengineering, Syracuse University, 1982

M.S. Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1985

Ph.D. Bioengineering, University of Washington, 1998

Publications

2000-present and while at APL-UW

Validation of 2-dimensional ultrasound imaging protocols for measuring the masseter muscle

Lin, M., D.F. Leotta, M.B. Chen, and P.P. Lee, "Validation of 2-dimensional ultrasound imaging protocols for measuring the masseter muscle," Oral Surgeon. Oral Med. Oral Pathol. Oral Radiol., 139, 600-611, doi:10.1016/j.oooo.2024.12.023, 2025.

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1 May 2025

To determine the most repeatable ultrasound imaging protocols for assessing the masseter muscle, evaluating repeatability across different scan locations, muscle contraction states, and operator positions. (1) High intra- and inter-rater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.99 and intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.98, respectively) for muscle thickness measurement. (2) Thickness at the image center is similar to the average muscle thickness. (3) The longitudinal middle location had the greatest repeatability, regardless of muscle state. (4) Scans at both relaxed and clenched state are repeatable, with relaxed scans yielding slightly greater repeatability. (5) Operator position showed negligible effect on repeatability. (6) Location of the maximum thickness increase in the clenched state varied between subjects. The study identified longitudinal middle location as the most repeatable ultrasound transducer position to measure masseter muscle, regardless of muscle contraction state or the operator position.

Pharyngeal airway dimensions and adipose distribution in the minipig

Rosero Salazar, D.H., R. Grewal, A. Vimawala, D.F. Leotta, S.R. Levendovszky, and Z.-J. Liu, "Pharyngeal airway dimensions and adipose distribution in the minipig," J. Oral. Biol. Craniofacial Res., 15, 77-83, doi:10.1016/j.jobcr.2024.12.004, 2025.

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1 Jan 2025

MRI with respiration gating provides synchronized imaging and valuable morphological and functional information.

Humans are either nasal or oral breathers while the porcine model is mainly a nasal breather due to their retroglossal space.

The respiratory dynamics between large animals and humans remain similar regardless of the retroglossal space.

The tongue base and soft palate of young adult minipigs showed larger regional adipose accumulations than other structures.

The masseter muscle showed the lowest adipose accumulation that may be related to its embryological origin.

Histotripsy-induced bactericidal activity correlates to size of cavitation cloud in vitro

Ambekar, P.A., Y.-N. Wang, T.D. Khokhlova, G.P.L. Thomas, P.B. Rosnitskiy, K. Contreras, D.F. Leotta, A.D. Maxwell, M. Bruce, S. Pierson, S. Totten, Y.N. Kumar, J. Thiel, K.T. Chan, W.C. Liles, E.P. Dellinger, A. Adedipe, W.L. Monsky, and T.J. Matula, "Histotripsy-induced bactericidal activity correlates to size of cavitation cloud in vitro," IEEE Trans. Ultrason. Ferroelectr. Freq. Control, 71, 1868-1878, doi:10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3476438, 2024.

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9 Oct 2024

Large abscesses are walled-off collections of pus and bacteria that often do not respond to antibiotic therapy. Standard of care involves percutaneous placement of indwelling catheter(s) for drainage, a long and uncomfortable process with high rehospitalization rates. The long-term goal of this work is to develop therapeutic ultrasound approaches to eradicate bacteria within abscesses as a noninvasive therapeutic alternative. Inertial cavitation induced by short pulses of focused ultrasound (histotripsy) is known to generate lethal mechanical damage in bacteria. Prior studies with Escherichia coli (E. coli) in suspension demonstrated that bactericidal effects increase with increasing peak negative amplitude, treatment time, and duty cycle. The current study investigated correlates of bactericidal activity with histotripsy cavitation cloud size. Histotripsy was applied to E. coli suspensions in 10-mL sample vials at 810 kHz, 1.2 MHz, or 3.25 MHz for 40 min. The cavitation activity in the sample vials was separately observed with high-speed photography. The cavitation cloud area was quantified from those images. A linear relationship was observed between bacterial inactivation and cavitation cloud size ( R2 = 0.98 ), regardless of the acoustic parameters (specifically frequency, pulse duration, and power) used to produce the cloud.

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Inventions

Fenestration template for endovascular repair of aortic aneurysms

Patent Number: 9,811,613

Dan Leotta, Benjamin Starnes

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Patent

7 Nov 2017

To provide simple yet accurate stent graft fenestration, a patient-specific fenestration template is used as a guide for graft fenestration. To generate the fenestration template, a patient's medical imaging data such as CT scan data may be used to generate a 3-D digital model of an aorta lumen of the patient. The aorta lumen may encompass one or more branch vessels, which may be indicated on the 3-D digital model. Based on the 3-D digital model or a segment thereof, the fenestration template may be generated, for example, using 3-D printing technology. The fenestration template may include one or more holes or openings that correspond to the one or more branch vessels. To fenestrate a stent graft, the fenestration template is coupled to the stent graft so that the holes or openings on the fenestration template indicate the fenestration locations.

Fenestration template for endovascular repair of aortic aneurysms

Patent Number: 9,305,123

Dan Leotta, Benjamin Starnes

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Patent

5 Apr 2016

To provide simple yet accurate stent graft fenestration, a patient-specific fenestration template is used as a guide for graft fenestration. To generate the fenestration template, a patient's medical imaging data such as CT scan data may be used to generate a 3-D digital model of an aorta lumen of the patient. The aorta lumen may encompass one or more branch vessels, which may be indicated on the 3-D digital model. Based on the 3-D digital model or a segment thereof, the fenestration template may be generated, for example, using 3-D printing technology. The fenestration template may include one or more holes or openings that correspond to the one or more branch vessels. To fenestrate a stent graft, the fenestration template is coupled to the stent graft so that the holes or openings on the fenestration template indicate the fenestration locations.

Acoustics Air-Sea Interaction & Remote Sensing Center for Environmental & Information Systems Center for Industrial & Medical Ultrasound Electronic & Photonic Systems Ocean Engineering Ocean Physics Polar Science Center
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