Assessment of tissue perfusion by contrast-enhanced ultrasound

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) with microbubble contrast agents is a new imaging technique for quantifying tissue perfusion. CEUS presents several advantages over other imaging techniques in assessing tissue perfusion, including the use of microbubbles as blood-pool agents, portability, availab...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European radiology 2011-03, Vol.21 (3), p.604-615
Main Author: Quaia, Emilio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Computer Simulation
Contrast agents
Contrast Media - pharmacokinetics
Diagnostic Radiology
Humans
Image Enhancement - methods
Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - methods
Imaging
Internal Medicine
Interventional Radiology
Kidneys
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Microbubbles
Models, Biological
Neuroradiology
Perfluorocarbons
Perfusion Imaging - methods
Radiation
Radiology
Reproducibility of Results
Sensitivity and Specificity
Tomography
Ultrasonic imaging
Ultrasonography - methods
Ultrasound
Veins & arteries
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Summary:Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) with microbubble contrast agents is a new imaging technique for quantifying tissue perfusion. CEUS presents several advantages over other imaging techniques in assessing tissue perfusion, including the use of microbubbles as blood-pool agents, portability, availability and absence of exposure to radiation or nuclear tracers. Dedicated software packages are necessary to quantify the echo-signal intensity and allow the calculation of the degree of tissue contrast enhancement based on the accurate distinction between microbubble backscatter signals and native tissue background. The measurement of organ transit time after microbubble injection and the analysis of tissue reperfusion kinetics represent the two fundamental methods for the assessment of tissue perfusion by CEUS. Transit time measurement has been shown to be feasible and has started to become accepted as a clinical tool, especially in the liver. The loudness of audio signals from spectral Doppler analysis is used to generate time-intensity curves to follow the wash-in and wash-out of the microbubble bolus. Tissue perfusion may be quantified also by analysing the replenishment kinetics of the volume of microbubbles after their destruction in the imaged slice. This allows to obtain semiquantitative parameters related to local tissue perfusion, especially in the heart, brain, and kidneys.
ISSN:0938-7994
1432-1084
DOI:10.1007/s00330-010-1965-6