Effect of acoustic parameters on the cavitation behavior of SonoVue microbubbles induced by pulsed ultrasound

Yutong Lin; Lizhou Lin; Mouwen Cheng; Lifang Jin; Lianfang Du; Tao Han; Lin Xu; Alfred C H Yu; Peng Qin

doi:10.1016/j.ultsonch.2016.09.016

Effect of acoustic parameters on the cavitation behavior of SonoVue microbubbles induced by pulsed ultrasound

Ultrason Sonochem. 2017 Mar;35(Pt A):176-184. doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2016.09.016. Epub 2016 Sep 20.

Authors

Yutong Lin¹, Lizhou Lin², Mouwen Cheng¹, Lifang Jin², Lianfang Du², Tao Han¹, Lin Xu³, Alfred C H Yu⁴, Peng Qin⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Instrument Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
² Department of Ultrasound, Shanghai First People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
³ National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
⁴ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
⁵ Department of Instrument Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. Electronic address: pqin@sjtu.edu.cn.

PMID: 27707644
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2016.09.016

Abstract

SonoVue microbubbles could serve as artificial nuclei for ultrasound-triggered stable and inertial cavitation, resulting in beneficial biological effects for future therapeutic applications. To optimize and control the use of the cavitation of SonoVue bubbles in therapy while ensuring safety, it is important to comprehensively understand the relationship between the acoustic parameters and the cavitation behavior of the SonoVue bubbles. An agarose-gel tissue phantom was fabricated to hold the SonoVue bubble suspension. 1-MHz transmitting transducer calibrated by a hydrophone was used to trigger the cavitation of SonoVue bubbles under different ultrasonic parameters (i.e., peak rarefactional pressure (PRP), pulse repetition frequency (PRF), and pulse duration (PD)). Another 7.5-MHz focused transducer was employed to passively receive acoustic signals from the exposed bubbles. The ultraharmonics and broadband intensities in the acoustic emission spectra were measured to quantify the extent of stable and inertial cavitation of SonoVue bubbles, respectively. We found that the onset of both stable and inertial cavitation exhibited a strong dependence on the PRP and PD and a relatively weak dependence on the PRF. Approximate 0.25MPa PRP with more than 20μs PD was considered to be necessary for ultraharmonics emission of SonoVue bubbles, and obvious broadband signals started to appear when the PRP exceeded 0.40MPa. Moreover, the doses of stable and inertial cavitation varied with the PRP. The stable cavitation dose initially increased with increasing PRP, and then decreased rapidly after 0.5MPa. By contrast, the inertial cavitation dose continuously increased with increasing PRP. Finally, the doses of both stable and inertial cavitation were positively correlated with PRF and PD. These results could provide instructive information for optimizing future therapeutic applications of SonoVue bubbles.

Keywords: Inertial cavitation; Passive cavitation detection; SonoVue microbubbles; Stable cavitation; Ultrasound.