OBJECTIVES To evaluate the efficacy of microbubble contrast ultrasound in diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma and to compare its results with those of magnetic resonance and histopathology. METHODS A total of 29 patients suffering from chronic liver diseases and awaiting liver transplants at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein were subject to magnetic resonance, microbubble contrast ultrasou...

Ultrasound-mediated gene transfer is emerging as a practical means of facilitating targeted gene expression and is significantly enhanced in the presence of exogenously added microbubbles. This study explores the influence of microbubble surface modifications on their interaction with plasmid DNA and target cells, and the functional consequences of those interactions in terms of ultrasound-medi...

Ultrasound can cause microbubble destruction. We hypothesized that ultrasound induced microbubble destruction can be used to quantify myocardial blood flow. in viva experiments were performed where microbubbles were delivered as a constant infusion, and ultrasound examination was performed using different pulsing intervals from which microbubble velocity and microvascular cross-sectional area w...

This study aimed to explore the effects of microbubble concentration, gene dosage, cell-microbubble mixing mode and fetal bovine serum (FBS) on gene delivery. 293T cells were transfected with Sonovue microbubbles carrying the hAng-1 gene via ultrasound irradiation. Various ultrasound exposure parameters and microbubble and DNA concentrations were investigated. In addition, FBS and the cell susp...

The combination of microbubbles and ultrasound has emerged as a promising method for local drug delivery. Microbubbles can be locally activated by a targeted ultrasound beam, which can result in several bio-effects. For drug delivery, microbubble-assisted ultrasound is used to increase vascular- and plasma membrane permeability for facilitating drug extravasation and the cellular uptake of drug...

OBJECTIVE The combination of intracoronary transplantation and ultrasound-mediated microbubble destruction may promote effective and accurate delivery of bone marrow stem cells (BMSCs) into the infarct zone. To test this hypothesis in this study we examined the effectiveness of ultrasound-mediated microbubble destruction in combination with intracoronary transplantation of BMSCs for the treatme...

OBJECTIVES Our objective was to test the hypothesis that the ultrasound pulsing interval (PI), microbubble injection site and microvascular pressure significantly influence the transport of 100-nm microspheres to muscle through extravasation sites created by the destruction of microbubbles with ultrasound. BACKGROUND Microbubbles show promise as targeted drug and gene delivery agents; however...

Non-muscle invasive bladder cancer is one of the most common tumors of the urinary tract. Despite the current multimodal therapy, recurrence and progression of disease have been challenging problems. We hereby introduced a new approach, ultrasound-assisted intravesical chemotherapy, intravesical instillation of chemotherapeutic agents and microbubbles followed by ultrasound exposure. We investi...

Ultrasound contrast agents are highly echogenic microbubbles with many unique properties. Microbubbles can basically improve the sensitivity of conventional ultrasound imaging to the microcirculation. The resonance of microbubbles in response to an incident ultrasound pulse results in nonlinear harmonic emission that serves as the signature of microbubbles in microbubble-specific imaging. Inert...

BACKGROUND Our aim was to observe ultrasound-induced intravascular microbubble destruction in vivo and to characterize any resultant bioeffects. METHODS AND RESULTS Intravital microscopy was used to visualize the spinotrapezius muscle in 15 rats during ultrasound delivery. Microbubble destruction during ultrasound exposure caused rupture of < or = 7-microm microvessels (mostly capillaries) an...