Ultrabubble: A Laminated Ultrasound Contrast Agent with Narrow Size Range

Abstract

A laminated shell microcapsule is described resisting aggregation and withstanding ultrasound destruction, showing a good backscatter signal, as shown in the figure. Templated synthesis produces versatile monodisperse capsules <3 µm, with ultrasound‐pressure dependency allowing rupture above MI ∼ 1.5 (at 2 MHz), suitable for future development as both controlled‐delivery agent and contrast agent.

Facile synthesis of amino-functionalized hollow silica microspheres and their potential application for ultrasound imaging

“…Currently, the particle sizes of synthesized HSSs are mainly in the sub-micrometer range [1][2][3] and only few literatures [12,13,21] reported the large particle sizes of HSSs (>1.0 lm) with smooth and compact silica shells due to the difficult control of the curvature effects of large templates and homogeneous nucleation in the coating process [22,23]. Therefore, to the best of our knowledge, the functionalized HSSs with micrometric particle size has rarely been fabricated.…”

“…Moreover, most recent investigations have shown that the hollow silica microspheres have excellent echoing characteristic under ultrasonic radiation [21]. To evaluate the potential application of as-prepared amino functionalized HSMS as an ultrasound imaging contrast agent, the contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) images of the HSMS with concentrations from 0 to 1.0 mg/mL were investigated as shown in Fig.…”

“…The major biological applications of HSSs were focused on the drug/gene storage and controlled release. However, it has been proved from most recent studies that the HSMS has excellent echoing characteristic under ultrasonic radiation [21]. Therefore, the potential application of as-prepared HSMS as ultrasound imaging contrast agent was investigated in vitro.…”

Perfluorohexane‐Encapsulated Mesoporous Silica Nanocapsules as Enhancement Agents for Highly Efficient High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU)

“…Elastically shelled microcapsules with organosilane compositions were initially found to enhance ultrasound resonance. [3] Later, additional boron and perfluoropentane (PFP) vapor were incorporated to strengthen shell robustness and scattering intensity. [4] More recently, a series of cell-level biological effects were also explored by using inorganic microcapsules as the ultrasound imaging agents.…”

Quantitative contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging: a review of sources of variability

“…New developments in the fabrication processes to generate more controlled bubble properties could open up new ways of addressing many of the issues. So far, significant efforts have been made to manufacture bubbles with a very high degree of control over bubble uniformity in terms of their size and coating properties [132][133][134]. This would potentially help the accurate prediction of the acoustic response of a bubble population exposed to ultrasound given specific scanner settings.…”