Acoustic characterization of monodisperse lipid-coated microbubbles: Relationship between size and shell viscoelastic properties Articles uri icon

authors

  • PARRALES BORRERO, MIGUEL ANGEL
  • FERNANDEZ, JUAN M.
  • PEREZ SABORID, MIGUEL
  • KOPECHEK, JONATHAN A.
  • PORTER, TYRONE M.

publication date

  • September 2014

start page

  • 1077

end page

  • 1084

issue

  • 3

volume

  • 136

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0001-4966

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1520-8524

abstract

  • The acoustic attenuation spectrum of lipid-coated microbubble suspensions was measured in order to characterize the linear acoustic behavior of ultrasound contrast agents. For that purpose, microbubbles samples were generated with a very narrow size distribution by using microfluidics techniques. A performance as good as optical characterization techniques of single microbubbles was achieved using this method. Compared to polydispersions (i.e., contrast agents used clinically),monodisperse contrast agents have a narrower attenuation spectrum, which presents a maximum peak at a frequency value corresponding to the average single bubble resonance frequency. The low polydispersity index of the samples made the estimation of the lipid viscoelastic properties more accurate since, as previously reported, the shell linear parameters may change with the equilibrium bubble radius. The results showed the great advantage of dealing with monodisperse populations rather than polydisperse populations for the acoustic characterization of ultrasound contrast agents

keywords

  • fluid bubbles; suspensions; wave attenuation; acoustical measurements; viscoelasticity