Structural changes and imaging signatures of acoustically sensitive microcapsules under ultrasound.

The ultrasound drug delivery field is actively designing new agents that would obviate the problems of just using microbubbles for drug delivery. Microbubbles have very short circulation time (minutes), low payload and large size (2-10μm), all of these aspects are not ideal for systemic drug delivery. However, microbubble carriers provide excellent image contrast and their use for image guidance can be exploited.

A novel breast software phantom for biomechanical modeling of elastography.

Purpose: In developing breast imaging technologies, testing is done with phantoms. Physical phantoms are normally used but their size, shape, composition, and detail cannot be modified readily. These difficulties can be avoided by creating a software breast phantom.

Effect of therapeutic ultrasound on acoustically sensitive microcapsules.

In the area of therapeutic ultrasound activated drug delivery, difficulties exist in designing a carrier that responds to ultrasound for triggering and imaging but also provides adequate treatment potential. In this paper, we report on a novel acoustically sensitive microcapsule reservoir that can be activated with therapeutic ultrasound for payload release and can be potentially tracked using imaging. It is being designed for increased longevity and is not planned for the circulation.