Contrast-enhanced intravascular ultrasound imaging of vascular invasion

描述(申请人提供)：胰腺癌是最致命的癌症之一，只有不到5%的患者被诊断为存活超过5年。虽然一些患者可能需要手术切除，但在许多患者中，肿瘤在最初诊断时已经侵犯了主要血管，因此被认为是无法切除的。肿瘤血管侵犯通常是通过磁共振成像(MRI)或计算机断层扫描(CT)的诊断成像来确定的。然而，MRI和CT对这项任务的敏感性都很低，导致了高比率的未治疗患者。这项研究提出了另一种成像方法，使用微创血管内超声设备实时成像肿瘤血管和体循环中的血流。最近的研究表明，专门的超声换能器能够对微泡造影剂的非线性振荡进行高分辨率、高灵敏度的成像。通过设计、制造和测试血管内超声探头和伴随的微泡造影剂，这项翻译研究项目将展示一种以高空间分辨率实时成像血流动力学的方法，使其成为首个能够捕获肿瘤血管侵袭的成像技术。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cancer of the pancreas is one of the most deadly forms of cancer, with less than 5% of patients diagnosed with this disease surviving more than 5 years. While some patients may be treated with surgical resection, in many individuals tumors have invaded the major blood vessels by the time of initial diagnosis and thus are considered unresectable. Tumor vascular invasion is commonly determined via diagnostic imaging with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT). However, both MRI and CT have demonstrated poor sensitivity for this task, resulting in high rates of untreated patients. This research proposes an alternative imaging approach which uses a minimally-invasive intravascular ultrasound device to image blood flow in both tumor vasculature and systemic circulation in real-time. Recent research has demonstrated that specialized ultrasound transducers are capable of high resolution, highly sensitive imaging of non-linear oscillations of microbubble contrast agents. By designing, fabricating, and testing an intravascular ultrasound probe and an accompanying microbubble contrast agent, this translational research project will demonstrate an approach for imaging blood flow dynamics in real time with high spatial resolution, making it the first imaging technology capable of capturing tumor vascular invasion.