Echocardiographic Ischemic Memory Molecular Imaging for Point-of-Care Detection of Myocardial Ischemia

Acoustic Activation Imaging With Intravenous Perfluoropropane Nanodroplets Results in Selective Bioactivation of the Risk Area

“…Perfluoropropane microbubble retention to coronary venular endothelium has been described following ischemia and reperfusion. The retention has been augmented in pre‐clinical and early clinical studies using endothelial targeting ligands like phosphatidylserine on the bubble shell to be visually detected with ultrasound 18 . In our study, we were able to activate droplets formulated from non‐targeted lipid microbubble preparations to delineate the DSZ, which then appeared to persist for several minutes following activation when imaging at lower to intermediate Mis post‐high MI activation.…”

“…The retention has been augmented in pre-clinical and early clinical studies using endothelial targeting ligands like phosphatidylserine on the bubble shell to be visually detected with ultrasound. 18 In our study, we were able to activate droplets formulated from non-targeted lipid microbubble preparations to delineate the DSZ, which then appeared to persist for several minutes following activation when imaging at lower to intermediate Mis post-high MI activation. The mechanism for this retention following activation is unclear, but could represent a relatively transient period of microvascular entrapment due to microbubble size following AA, or entrapment of formed microbubbles within subendothelial spaces or adherent leukocytes.…”

Utilizing Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasonography with Phosphatidylserine Microbubbles to Detect Placental Inflammation in Rhesus Macaques

“…It is unlikely that the MB-PS were attached to activated leukocytes associated with chorionic villi because we did not observe any nuclear staining near the MB-PS on the intervillous surface of the syncytiotrophoblast. To date, reports only detailed the associations of MB-PS with endothelial cells and leukocytes in the cardiovascular system [ 26 , 28 , 31 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ].…”

“…A venous catheter was placed for maternal administration of the contrast agent. A 1 mL bolus of 10 5 MB-PS per nL was injected and five minutes was allowed between injection and CEUS imaging to allow for the MB-PS to adhere and also to permit some clearance of non-adhered MB-PS from the circulation [ 28 ]. Abdominal contrast-enhanced ultrasonography was performed with a multiphase amplitude-modulation and phase-inversion algorithm on an Acuson Sequoia system (Siemens Medical Systems, Mountain View, CA, USA) that was equipped with a 15L8 transducer at a transmit frequency of 7 MHz with a 0.18 mechanical index.…”

“…The presence of PS in the shell promotes microbubble attachment to activated leukocytes through opsonization, and even adhesion to activated endothelium through mechanisms yet to be fully determined. Imaging MB-PS retention has been used to highlight the inflammation caused by myocardial or renal ischemia-reperfusion injury, angiogenesis, and myocarditis in humans and mice using ultrasound [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]. Ultimately, we are interested in utilizing CEUS molecular imaging with MB-PS as an antenatal surveillance tool for placental dysfunction.…”