Subharmonic-aided pressure estimation (SHAPE): on the cusp of clinical utility?

Excerpt

Although later than other imaging modalities, ultrasound imaging has benefitted from commercial access to microbubble-based ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) for about 30 years by now. These UCAs consist of microbubbles (typically less than 8 µm in diameter) filled with a higher molecular weight gas and encapsulated by an outer shell for stability, which results in 3–8 min or more of circulation time in vivo following an IV injection. Microbubble-based UCAs can enhance ultrasound signals by up to 30 dB enabling signals from vessels 20–39 µm in diameter to be imaged. It is well established that these vascular agents in combination with nonlinear contrast-specific imaging techniques in the form of contrast-enhance ultrasound imaging (CEUS) improve both the sensitivity and specificity of ultrasound diagnoses across a wide range of clinical applications. …