What is microbubble contrast agent?

Microbubble contrast agents highlight the left ventricular cavity and make the blood-tissue boundary much clearer, which helps in assessing regional abnormalities in wall motion, estimating ejection fraction, and detecting left ventricular thrombus.

What are applicable uses of ultrasound contrast agents?

How can we use ultrasound contrast agents imaging? In cardiology, UCA are used to improve difficult echocardiograms. The frequency of difficult echocardiograms is given as approximately 30%. UCA imaging can improve these in a significant percentage.

How do the microbubbles in an ultrasound contrast agent change the image?

The microbubbles reflect a unique echo that stands in stark contrast to the surrounding tissue, owing to the discrepancy in orders of magnitude between microbubble and tissue echogenicity. The ultrasound system converts the strong echogenicity into a contrast-enhanced image of the area of interest.

What is microbubble technology?

In this case, microbubbles—each one only a fraction of the width of a human hair—are designed to mimic the alveoli in the human lung by releasing oxygen to the body and simultaneously removing carbon dioxide.

What are microbubbles used for in ultrasound?

In just 1 milliliter of suspension of a commonly used ultrasound contrast agent there are about 500 to 600 million microbubbles. These can be administered into the body via different routes and enhance the ultrasound reflection of the sound waves, resulting in an ultrasound image with high echogenicity, ie, contrast.

What is microbubble ultrasound?

Microbubbles are used for contrast ultrasound imaging as blood-pool agents in cardiology and radiology. Their promise as targeted agents for molecular imaging is now being recognized. Microbubbles can be functionalized with ligand molecules that bind to molecular markers of disease.

What is ultrasound contrast agents?

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is the application of ultrasound contrast medium to traditional medical sonography. Ultrasound contrast agents rely on the different ways in which sound waves are reflected from interfaces between substances. This may be the surface of a small air bubble or a more complex structure.

What does bubbles mean in ultrasound?

With ultrasound, bubbles serve as the contrast agent. These gas-filled globes are enclosed by a phospholipid shell. Contrast is generated when ultrasound waves interact with the bubbles, causing them to oscillate and reflect soundwaves that differ significantly from waves reflected by body tissues.

What are microbubbles made of?

Microbubbles are composed of a gas-filled core – either air, nitrogen or an inert gas with high molecular weight, such as perfluorocarbon or sulfur hexafluoride – with an outer shell consisting of biocompatible compounds such as lipids, proteins or synthetic biopolymers.

What is microbubble cavitation?

One of the effects of ultrasound is cavitation, or microbubble formation and collapse. Cavitation produces high pressures and temperatures, and microbubble expansion and then collapse close to cells can lead to cellular damage or hemorrhage in biological tissues.

How are microbubbles made?

Albumin-coated microbubbles are formed by sonication of a heated solution of 5% (w/v) human serum albumin in the presence of air. During sonication, microbubbles of air are formed which become encapsulated within a 15-nm thick shell of aggregated albumin.