EXCITATION ENHANCED ULTRASOUND CONTRAST IMAGING

该项目建议开发一种新的成像技术，以提高医学超声成像系统的性能，当与基于微泡的造影剂一起使用时，最终目标是提供一种比现有超声扫描仪具有更高灵敏度的激发增强超声对比成像系统。新的超声系统将利用两个声场：一个用于微泡激发，另一个用于成像。激发场会瞬间增加气泡的数量，气泡的瞬时大小接近与成像场对应的共振大小。如果成像场与激励场同时施加或稍稍加在激励场之后，激发气泡的声散射将比没有激励场时明显增强(至少6分贝)。将建立一个体外实验系统，用于激活造影剂微泡的生长，并测量微泡尺寸分布的相应位移以及基波和二次谐波后向散射的变化。将建立实验条件，以优化来自造影剂的散射信号，以提高传统和谐波成像模式的信噪比。激发增强超声造影术将使临床医生能够更好地描绘包含组织的造影剂，从而更好地诊断包括肿瘤在内的血管异常。建议的商业应用：超声波成像现在是仅次于X射线的第二种最广泛使用的成像方式。近年来，由于超声特异性造影剂的发展，它的使用有所增加。这项拟议的研究将加速造影剂在许多重要临床应用中的应用。

This project proposes the development of a new imaging technique for improving the performance of medical ultrasound imaging systems when used with microbubble-based contrast agents The ultimate goal is the provision of a system for excitation enhanced ultrasound contrast imaging with a higher sensitivity than current ultrasound scanners. The new ultrasound system will utilize two acoustic fields: one for microbubble excitation and one for imaging. The excitation field will momentarily increase the number of bubbles with an instantaneous size close to the resonance size corresponding to the imaging field. If the imaging field is applied simultaneously with or slightly after the excitation field, acoustic scattering from the excited bubbles will become markedly stronger (at least 6 dB) than without the excitation field. An experimental, in vitro system will be constructed for activating the growth of the contrast microbubbles and for measuring the corresponding shifts in the microbubble size- distribution and the changes in fundamental and second harmonic backscattering Experimental conditions will be established for optimizing scattered signals from contrast agents to improve the signal-to-noise ratio in both conventional and harmonic imaging modalities. Excitation enhanced ultrasound contrast imaging will enable clinicians to better depict contrast containing tissues and, thus, better diagnose vascular abnormalities including tumors. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: Ultrasonic Imaging is now the second most widely used imaging modality after x-ray. Its usage has increased in recent years due to the development of ultrasound specific contrast agents. The proposed research will accelerate the usefulness of contrast agents for many significant clinical applications.