Original ContributionDefinition of Contrast Enhancement Phases of the Liver Using a Perfluoro-Based Microbubble Agent, Perflubutane Microbubbles
Section snippets
Introduction and Literature
In addition to contrast-enhanced X-ray/computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), contrast-enhanced ultrasonography has become the new standard method for the diagnosis of liver focal lesions (Lencioni 2006; Nicolau et al. 2006; Leen et al. 2006). Different from the iodinated agent used in X-ray/CT and the gadolinium chelating agent used in MRI, the ultrasound contrast agent, which consists of microbubbles (MB), cannot be distributed into the interstitium through the
Contrast agent
Perflubutane MBs are MBs of gaseous perflubutane (C4F10) stabilized with a monomolecular membrane of hydrogenated egg phosphatidyl serine (Sontum 2008). The lyophilized formulation is suspended with 2 mL of water, where each milliliter of the suspension contains 8 μL of perflubutane MBs.
Subjects
This study was approved by the institutional review board. All subjects gave informed consent. All subjects fasted for 6 h or more before the contrast ultrasonography. This study included healthy volunteers ≥20
Vascular phase
The arrival of the agent in the hepatic artery, the portal vein and the hepatic vein was visually distinguishable (Fig. 3). The arrival time and time-to-peak intensity in the hepatic artery varied from 14–25 s after injection (mean 19.2 ± 4.4 s SD) and from 23–42 s (mean 33.5 ± 8.1 s SD), respectively. The arrival time and time-to-peak intensity at the portal vein varied from 20–30 s after injection (mean 24.3 ± 4.2 s SD) and from 34–48 s (mean 41.5 ± 6.2 s SD), respectively. The arrival time and
Discussion and Summary
In this study, we investigated TICs of liver enhancement with perflubutane MBs and defined the liver enhancement phases.
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