Ultrasound Contrast Agents: Development of the Field and Current Status

Abstract

A review. Design, prepn. and application of microbubbles as ultrasound contrast agents are discussed. Modern generation of ultrasound contrast materials can be prepd. as aq. dispersions of micron-size bubbles of water-insol. gas (e.g., perfluorocarbon) coated with a thin shell made of protein, lipid or polymer. Such microbubbles can be injected i.v. for imaging blood flow and tissue and organ delineation and perfusion. Microbubbles can be outfitted with targeting ligands for selective contrasting of the areas of disease. Microbubbles can be selectively destroyed in the ultrasound field. So, if a drug or plasmid DNA is attached to a microbubble, selective release into the insonified areas of the body can be achieved for drug delivery or gene therapy. Several ultrasound contrast agents have received approval for clin. use so far. Their widespread application will allow rapid and inexpensive diagnostics of tissue perfusion abnormalities and location of tumor metastases. [on SciFinder (R)]