Development of contrast enhanced ultrasonography using the sheep ovarian model of microvascular regulation

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A large number of diseases, including cancer, infertility, heart and pregnancy abnormalities, depend on changes to the blood flow in the area of the disease. In cancer generally there is more blood flow generated by the cancer cells, while in heart attacks there is an area in the heart that almost has no blood supply. The seriousness of the disease is also linked to small blood flow changes. The ovary is a tissue where blood flow changes occur naturally during the menstrual cycle. Thus this tissue can simulate a range of diseases and can be used as a system for setting up an accurate blood flow measuring tool. Ultrasound imaging combined with contrast agents that are injected into the blood stream to assess the blood supply of small areas, would be a major advance in the diagnosis and treatment of many different diseases. We plan to develop the tools to do this by focussing on a small tissue in which the blood supply changes from very small to very large in a predictable reproducible way. We can also use drugs to change the blood supply to this tissue. This tissue is in the sheep ovary and if we can use this to create tools to measure normal and abnormal blood flow we can then take this tool directly into the clinic to measure the important changes to blood flow in a variety of important human diseases.