Correlation of rupture dynamics to the nonlinear backscatter response from polymer-shelled ultrasound contrast agents

Nonlinear dynamics of lipid-shelled ultrasound microbubble contrast agents

Encapsulated gas microbubbles, known as contrast agents, are widely used in ultrasound medical applications. The present study is devoted to modelling of the spatio-temporal dynamics of lipid-shelled contrast agents. A theoretical model is proposed that describes the radial and translational motion of a lipid-shelled microbubble in an ultrasound field. The model approximates the behaviour of th...

Excitation of polymer-shelled contrast agents with high-frequency ultrasound.

Few experimental and complementary theoretical studies have investigated high-frequency (>20 MHz) nonlinear responses from polymer-shelled ultrasound contrast agents. Three polymer agents with different shell properties were examined for their single-bubble backscatter when excited with a 40 MHz tone burst. Higher-order harmonic responses were observed for the three agents; however, their occur...

Visualization of multimodal polymer-shelled contrast agents using ultrasound contrast sequences: an experimental study in a tissue mimicking flow phantom

BACKGROUND A multimodal polymer-shelled contrast agent (CA) with target specific potential was recently developed and tested for its acoustic properties in a single element transducer setup. Since the developed polymeric CA has different chemical composition than the commercially available CAs, there is an interest to study its acoustic response when using clinical ultrasound systems. The aim o...

Author's response to reviews Title: Visualization of multimodal polymer-shelled contrast agents using ultrasound contrast sequences - An experimental study in a tissue mimicking flow phantom Authors:

Ultrasound contrast agents affect the angiogenic response.

OBJECTIVES The interaction of ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) and ultrasound (US) provides a way to spatially and temporally target tissues. Recently, UCAs have been used therapeutically to induce localized angiogenesis. Ultrasound contrast agents, however, have been documented to induce negative bioeffects. To further understand the balance of risks and benefits of UCAs and to examine the me...