4.5 Article

EFFECT OF ACOUSTIC PARAMETERS AND MICROBUBBLE CONCENTRATION ON THE LIKELIHOOD OF ENCAPSULATED MICROBUBBLE COALESCENCE

Journal

ULTRASOUND IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY
Volume 47, Issue 10, Pages 2980-2989

Publisher

ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2021.06.020

Keywords

Microbubble coalescence; Ultrasound contrast agent; Ultrasound; Contrast-enhanced ultrasound

Funding

  1. National Institutes of Health [R01CA189479, R01CA220681, R01NS113285, R01CA232148]
  2. Divers Alert Network Grant [DAN-UNC-1]

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The study found that under certain parameters in therapeutic ultrasound, microbubble coalescence is likely to occur, generating bubbles much larger than those found in commercial contrast agents; however, in diagnostic contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging, coalescence is unlikely to happen.
Microbubble contrast agents are commonly used for therapeutic and diagnostic imaging applications. Under certain conditions, these contrast agents can coalesce on ultrasound application and form larger bubbles than the initial population. The formation of large microbubbles potentially influences therapeutic outcomes and imaging quality. We studied clinically relevant ultrasound parameters related to low-pressure therapy and contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging to determine their effect on microbubble coalescence and subsequent changes in microbubble size distributions in vitro. Results indicate that therapeutic ultrasound at low frequencies, moderate pressures and high duty cycles are capable of forming bubbles greater than two times larger than the initial bubble distribution. Furthermore, acoustic parameters related to contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging that are at higher frequency, low-pressure and low-duty cycle exhibit no statistically significant changes in bubble diameter, suggesting that standard contrast ultrasound imaging does not cause coalescence. Overall, this work suggests that the microbubble coalescence phenomenon can readily occur at acoustic parameters used in therapeutic ultrasound, generating bubbles much larger than those found in commercial contrast agents, although coalescence is unlikely to be significant in diagnostic contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging. This observation warrants further expansion of parameter ranges and investigation of resulting effects. (C) 2021 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology. All rights reserved.

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