Effects of contrast-enhanced ultrasound treatment on neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer.

Preclinical and clinical data indicate that contrast-enhanced ultrasound can enhance tumor perfusion and vessel permeability, thus, improving chemotherapy accumulation and therapeutic outcome. Therefore, we investigated the effects of high mechanical index (MI) contrast-enhanced Doppler ultrasound (CDUS) on tumor perfusion in breast cancer. In this prospective study, breast cancer patients were randomly assigned to receive either 18 minutes of high MI CDUS during chemotherapy infusion (n = 6) or chemotherapy alone (n = 5).

Perfusion-related changes in intestinal diffusion detected by NMR-MOUSE® monitoring in minipigs.

Objective: The aim was to investigate perfusion-related changes in the intestinal diffusion assessed by NMR-MOUSE monitoring in minipigs. This was a follow-up study of previous experiments on landrace pigs demonstrating the feasibility of NMR-MOUSE monitoring in large animals.

Methods: 5 mature female minipigs (mean body weight 50 ± 2 kg) underwent laparotomy with exposition of several small intestinal loops and their feeding vessels.