Method of detecting microbubbles in a vessel

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10702245-B2
Application number	US-201715586879-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 4, 2017
Priority date	May 4, 2017
Publication date	Jul 7, 2020
Grant date	Jul 7, 2020

Abstract

The present invention provides a method of detecting microbubbles in a vessel of an affected part, comprising aggregates the microbubbles, acquiring phase-contrast magnetic resonance images and analyzing the phase-contrast magnetic resonance images. Thus, we can detect or monitor the size and location of the microbubbles in vessels of any part of body.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of detecting microbubbles in a vessel of an affected part, comprising:
delivering an ultrasonic energy within the affected part to aggregate the microbubbles to form a plurality of aggregated microbubbles;
acquiring a phase-contrast magnetic resonance image by a magnetic resonance device; and
locating the plurality of aggregated microbubbles by analyzing the phase-contrast magnetic resonance image to obtain a velocity value and a vorticity value of fluid flow in a region of interest in the phase-contrast magnetic resonance image;
wherein the plurality of aggregated microbubbles is located at wherein the velocity value is within the lowest 10%, and the vorticity value is −0.18 to 0.18;
wherein the ultrasonic energy has a frequency of 0.83-1.25 MHz and an acoustic pressure of 0.025-0.1 MPa; and
wherein the region of interest is an area of the vessel.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the region of interest is an area of the vessel.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the microbubbles have a diameter of 1-1.5 μm.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the microbubbles were substantially composed of C 3 F 8 gas or C 5 F 12 droplet core encapsulated by a lipid shell.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the microbubbles further comprise a drug for treating the affected part.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the phase-contrast magnetic resonance image is a plurality of phase-contrast magnetic resonance images in a time sequence.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6 , further comprising:
calculating a velocity change of each pixel of the region of interest in the plurality of phase-contrast magnetic resonance images, the velocity change is defined as follows:

Velocity
⁢

⁢
change
⁢

⁢

(
%
)

=

velocity
-

average
⁢

⁢
velocity

⁢



⁢

⁢

during
⁢

⁢
preFUS

average
⁢

⁢
velocity
⁢

⁢
during
⁢

⁢
preFUS

×
100
⁢
%

,

wherein preFUS is a time duration before the ultrasonic energy delivered, and a concentration of the microbubbles is equal to (the velocity change a first y-intercept value)/a first slope value, wherein the first y-intercept value is 1 to 1.5 and B the first slope value is 7.56 to 11.34.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the first y-intercept value is 1.25 and the first slope value is 9.45.

9. The method as claimed in claim 6 , further comprising:
calculating a temporal velocity standard deviation of each pixel of the region of interest in the plurality of phase-contrast magnetic resonance images,
wherein a concentration of the microbubbles is equal to the temporal velocity standard deviation/a second slope value, wherein the second slope value is 0.04 to 0.06.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the second slope value is 0.05.

11. The method as claimed in claim 6 , further comprising:
calculating a temporal velocity standard deviation of each pixel of the region of interest in the plurality of phase-contrast magnetic resonance images; and
calculating a range of temporal velocity standard deviation which is 90th percentile of the temporal velocity standard deviation minus 10th percentile of temporal velocity standard deviation,
wherein a concentration of the microbubbles is equal to (the range of temporal velocity standard deviation a second y-intercept value)/a third slope value, and the second y-intercept value is 0.0136 to 0.0204 and the third slope value is 0.0856 to 0.1284.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the second y-intercept value is 0.017 and the third slope value is 0.107.

Assignees

• Univ Nat Tsing Hua

Inventors

• Peng Hsu-Hsia
• Wu Che-Wei

Classifications

• A61B8/4416

  related to combined acquisition of different diagnostic modalities, e.g. combination of ultrasound and X-ray acquisitions · CPC title

• G01R33/4814

  MR combined with ultrasound · CPC title

• A61K49/1809

  Micelles, e.g. phospholipidic or polymeric micelles · CPC title

• G06T2207/30104

  Vascular flow; Blood flow; Perfusion · CPC title

• G06T7/0012

  Biomedical image inspection · CPC title