Real-time excitation-enhanced ultrasound contrast imaging.

A new nonlinear contrast specific imaging modality, excitation-enhanced imaging (EEI) has been implemented on commercially-available scanners for real-time imaging. This novel technique employs two acoustic fields: a low-frequency, high-intensity ultrasound field (the excitation field) to actively condition contrast microbubbles, and a second lower-intensity regular imaging field applied shortly afterwards to detect enhanced contrast scattering. A Logiq 9 scanner (GE Healthcare, Milwaukee, WI) with a 3.