Functional Imaging
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Contrast enhanced ultrasound imaging can provide information on the functional state of a tissue. Blood pool imaging agents, such as microbubbles, remain in the intravascular compartment and provide acoustic enhancement significantly greater than that of blood alone. These agents can be used for routine intravascular enhancement, for example to opacify the cardiac chambers. Using contrast-specific imaging modes (such as pulse-inversion or CPS) enables the use of blood pool agents for visualization of vascular flow, useful for detection of vascular pathways. Many microbubble contrast agents have been shown to exhibit microvascular behavior similar to red blood cells in vivo, which allows these agents to be used to detect and quantify blood flow. These agents can greatly increase microvascular Doppler signal, and can also be used to quantify microvascular perfusion in myocardium, liver, kidney, skeletal muscle and other tissues.