Microbubbles for ultrasound diagnosis and therapy

Methods for the local production of microbubbles in vivo are being developed for applications in both diagnostic and therapeutic ultrasound. The techniques involve the use of superheated perfluorocarbon droplets that can be vaporized by the application on focused ultrasound. This provides localization of the resulting gas bubbles and control over the number density and size of bubbles being released. For therapeutic ultrasound, large gas bubbles are produced in numbers sufficient to restrict blood flow or the bubbles can act as nuclei for cavitation-based tissue disruption. In lower number density, the bubbles provide targets with ideal properties for aberration correction, which can be used to improve both therapeutic and diagnostic fields.