| 1. |
- Daeichin, Verya, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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Effect of self-demodulation on the subharmonic response of contrast agent microbubbles
- 2012
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Ingår i: Physics in Medicine and Biology. - : IOP Publishing. - 0031-9155 .- 1361-6560. ; 57:12, s. 3675-3691
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Subharmonic (SH) emission from the ultrasound contrast agent (UCA) is of interest since it is produced only by the UCA and not by tissue, opposite to harmonic imaging modes where both tissue and microbubble show harmonics. In this work, the use of the self-demodulation (S-D) signal as a means of microbubble excitation at the SH frequency to enhance the SH emission of UCA is studied. The S-D wave is a low-frequency signal produced by the weak nonlinear propagation of an ultrasound wave. It is proportional to the second time derivative of the squared envelope of the transmitted signal. A diluted population of BR14 UCA (Bracco Research SA, Geneva, Switzerland) was insonified by a 10 MHz transducer focused at 76 mm firing bursts with different envelopes, durations and peak pressure amplitudes. The center frequency of the S-D signal changes from low frequencies (around 0.5 MHz) toward the transmitted frequency (10 MHz) by modifying the envelope function from Gaussian to rectangular. For 6 and 20 transmitted cycles, the SH response is enhanced up to 25 and 22 dB, respectively, when using a rectangular envelope instead of a Gaussian one. The experimental results are confirmed by the numerical simulation. The effects of the excitation duration and pressure amplitude are also studied. This study shows that a suitable design of the envelope of the transmit excitation to generate a S-D signal at the SH frequency can enhance the SH emission of UCA, and the SH imaging is feasible at high frequencies with a shorter transmit burst (six-cycle) and low acoustic pressure (similar to 100 KPa).
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| 2. |
- Daeichin, Verya, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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Self-demodulation effect on subharmonic response of ultrasound contrast agent
- 2012
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Ingår i: Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE. - : SPIE. - 1605-7422. - 9780819489692 ; 8320, s. Art. no. 83200W-
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this work the use of the self-demodulation (S-D) signal as a mean of microbubble excitation at the subharmonic (SH) frequency to enhance the SH emission of ultrasound contrast agent (UCA) is studied. SH emission from the UCA is of interest since it is produced only by the UCA and is free of the artifacts produced in harmonic imaging modes. The S-D wave is a low-frequency signal produced by nonlinear propagation of an ultrasound wave in the medium. Single element transducer experiments and numerical simulations were conducted at 10 MHz to study the effect of the S-D signal on the SH response of the UCA by modifying the envelope of the excitation bursts. For 6 and 20 transmitted cycles, the SH response is increased up to 25 dB and 22 dB because of the S-D stimulation for a burst with a rectangular envelope compared with a Gaussian envelope burst. Such optimized excitations were used in an array-based micro-ultrasound system (Vevo 2100, VisualSonics Inc., Toronto, ON, Canada) at 18 MHz for in vitro validation of SH imaging. This study suggests that a suitable design of the envelope of the transmit excitation to generate a S-D signal at the SH frequency can enhance the SH emission of UCA and real-time SH imaging is feasible with shorter transmit burst (6- cycle) and low acoustic pressure (-150 KPa) at high frequencies (>15 MHz).
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| 3. |
- Kothapalli, Veera Venkata Satya Naray, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Unique pumping-out fracturing mechanism of a polymer-shelled contrast agent : An acoustic characterization and optical visualization
- 2014
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Ingår i: IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control. - 0885-3010 .- 1525-8955. ; 62:3, s. 451-462
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This work describes the fracturing mechanism of air-filled microbubbles (MBs) encapsulated by a cross-linked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) shell. The radial oscillation and fracturing events following the ultrasound exposure were visualized with an ultrahigh-speed camera, and backscattered timedomain signals were acquired with the acoustic setup specific for harmonic detection. No evidence of gas emerging from defects in the shell with the arrival of the first insonation burst was found. In optical recordings, more than one shell defect was noted, and the gas core was drained without any sign of air extrusion when several consecutive bursts of 1 MPa amplitude were applied. In acoustic tests, the backscattered peak-to-peak voltage gradually reached its maximum and exponentially decreased when the PVA-based MB suspension was exposed to approximately 20 consecutive bursts arriving at pulse repetition frequencies of 100 and 500 Hz. Taking into account that the PVA shell is porous and possibly contains large air pockets between the cross-linked PVA chains, the aforementioned acoustic behavior might be attributed to pumping gas from these pockets in combination with gas release from the core through shell defects. We refer to this fracturing mechanism as pumping-out behavior, and this behavior could have potential use for the local delivery of therapeutic gases, such as nitric oxide.
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