Acoustic bubbles in therapy: Recent advances with medical microbubbles, clouds, and harmonic antibubbles

Abstract

EditorialAlthough the use of microbubbles has become common in ultrasound diagnostics, microbubbles are not that often seen in therapeutic applications. To share recent advances in the development and application of microbubbles in therapy, LE STUDIUM Loire Valley Institute for Advanced Studies and Inserm Research unit U1253: Imaging and Brain of the University of Tours organised an international conference on this topic. The event was held on 23 and 24 October, 2017, in the Hôtel de Ville of Tours, France, and hosted by Michiel Postema and Ayache Bouakaz from the University of Tours.Plenary sessions covered a wide range of topics, including bubble physics, bubble acoustic phenomena, bubble engineering and design, in-vitro evaluation, preclinical validations, and clinical studies. The conference was attended by 70 scientists, medical profesionals, and industrial representatives (cf. Figure 1).

The ultrasound-triggered explosion of an endoskeletal antibubble yields a predictable fragment size distribution

“…1) This would be a highly relevant finding, as the fragmentation predictability of acoustically active antibubbles is required for their potential use in ultrasound-guided drug delivery. 3) Antibubbles are by definition gas bubbles containing at least one liquid core. Although antibubbles are typically highly unstable structures, 4,5) they may be stabilised by adsorbing colloidal particles at the interfaces, which is referred to as Pickering stabilisation.…”