Title: Gauging the likelihood of stable cavitation from ultrasound contrast agents
Abstract:Clinical ultrasound scanners use the Mechanical Index (MI) to gauge the potential for bioeffects due to inertial cavitation. However, the advent of ultrasound contrast agents (UCA) introduces nucleati...Clinical ultrasound scanners use the Mechanical Index (MI) to gauge the potential for bioeffects due to inertial cavitation. However, the advent of ultrasound contrast agents (UCA) introduces nucleation mechanisms for bubble activity far different than that assumed in the development of the MI. Such exogenous agents promote bubble activity at substantially lower acoustic pressures than those required for inertial cavitation. The onset of this type of gentle bubble activity is within a stable cavitation regime. The minimum thresholds of both stable cavitation (as indicated by the onset of subharmonic oscillations) and the rupture of UCA were numerically calculated as a function of frequency. Both of these thresholds were found to depend linearly on frequency, and a “cavitation index” will be introduced. This index will be compared to the MI and compared to bioeffects studies in the literature. This cavitation index is not intended to replace the MI. Rather, it may be used to gauge the destruction of UCA, or promote bubble activity to induce beneficial bioeffects mediated by stable cavitation. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, grant numbers NIH RO1 NS047603, NIH RO1 HL059586, and NIH RO1 HL74002.Read More
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-09-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 3
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