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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: Imaging Med. 2014 Feb 1;6(1):41–52. doi: 10.2217/iim.13.74

Figure 2. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging with microbubble contrast agents.

Figure 2

(A) Targeted ultrasound (US) contrast agents (MBs) attached to receptors overexpressed on tumor endothelial cells after intravenous administration and systemic circulation. A portion of injected MBs do not attach to the target receptors and freely circulate through tumor microvascularity. After destruction of all MBs in the tumor volume (both attached and freely circulating) using a high-intensity US pulse sequence, (B) reperfusion with only freely circulating MBs occurs. (C) The difference in contrast-enhanced US image intensity before and after MB destruction is a surrogate measure of attached MBs to the target angiogenic biomarkers representing the molecular US signal. I base: Baseline image intensity; Ipost: Image intensity after MB destruction; Ipre: Image intensity before MB destruction; MB: Microbubble; tpost: Image time after MB destruction; tpre: Image time before MB destruction.