EXCITATION ENHANCED ULTRASOUND CONTRAST IMAGING

该项目提出了一种新的成像技术的发展，用于改善医疗超声成像系统的性能时，使用基于微泡造影剂的最终目标是提供一个系统的激励增强超声造影成像具有更高的灵敏度比目前的超声扫描仪。 新的超声系统将利用两个声场：一个用于微泡激发，一个用于成像。 激发场将瞬时增加具有接近于对应于成像场的共振尺寸的瞬时尺寸的气泡的数量。如果成像场与激发场同时或稍晚施加，则来自激发气泡的声散射将变得比没有激发场时明显更强（至少6dB）。 将构建一个实验性的体外系统，用于激活造影剂微泡的生长，并用于测量微泡尺寸分布的相应变化以及基波和二次谐波反向散射的变化。将建立实验条件，用于优化造影剂的散射信号，以提高常规和谐波成像模式的信噪比。 激发增强超声造影成像将使临床医生能够更好地描绘含有造影剂的组织，从而更好地诊断包括肿瘤在内的血管异常。拟议的商业应用：超声成像现在是第二个最广泛使用的成像模式后，X射线。近年来，由于超声特异性造影剂的发展，其使用有所增加。拟议的研究将加速造影剂在许多重要临床应用中的有用性。

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.