Understanding Acoustic Cavitation Initiation by Porous Nanoparticles: Toward Nanoscale Agents for Ultrasound Imaging and Therapy.

ABSTRACT: Ultrasound is widely applied in medical diagnosis and therapy due to its safety, high penetration depth, and low cost. In order to improve the contrast of sonographs and efficiency of the ultrasound therapy, echogenic gas bodies or droplets (with diameters from 200 nm to 10 µm) are often used, which are not very stable in the bloodstream and unable to penetrate into target tissues. Recently, it was demonstrated that nanobubbles stabilized by nanoparticles can nucleate ultrasound responsive microbubbles under reduced acoustic pressures, which is very promising for the development of nanoscale (<100 nm) ultrasound agents. However, there is still very little understanding about the effects of nanoparticle properties on the stabilization of nanobubbles and nucleation of acoustic cavitation by

SUBMITTER: Yildirim A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5419691 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature