More Than Bubbles: Creating Phase-Shift Droplets from Commercially Available Ultrasound Contrast Agents

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• 作者：Paul S. Sheeran^&lowast ; ; ^&dagger ; ; ^{pssheeran@gmail.com} ; Kimoon Yoo^&lowast ; ; Ross Williams^&lowast ; ; Melissa Yin^&lowast ; ; F. Stuart Foster^&lowast ; ; ^&dagger ; ; Peter N. Burns^&lowast ; ; ^&dagger ;
• 关键词：Perfluorocarbon ; Ultrasound contrast agents ; Phase-shift droplets ; Acoustic droplet vaporization ; Definity ; MicroMarker
• 刊名：Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：February 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：43
• 期：2
• 页码：531-540
• 全文大小：1456 K
• 卷排序：43

文摘

Phase-shift perfluorocarbon droplets have been investigated for over 20 years as pre-clinical ultrasound contrast agents with distinctive advantages in imaging and therapy. A number of formulation strategies exist, each with inherent advantages and limitations. In this note, we demonstrate a unique opportunity: that phase-shift droplets can be generated directly from commercially available microbubbles. This may facilitate pre-clinical and translational development by reducing the in-house synthesis expertise and resources required to generate high concentration droplet emulsions. Proof-of-principle in vitro and in vivo is given using droplets created from Definity and MicroMarker. The results demonstrate the role of perfluorocarbon choice in the trade-off between thermal stability and vaporization threshold, and suggest that commercial microbubbles with decafluorobutane cores may be ideal for this approach.