title: The use of a micro-bubble agent to enhance rabbit liver destruction using high intensity focused ultrasound.
abstract: Liver tissues in New Zealand rabbits were ablated using high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU, 14300 W/cm(2), 1.0 MHz). The animals were intravenously administered 0.2 ml of micro-bubble agent in the experimental (n=20) group and an isovolumetric normal saline solution in the control (n=27) group before HIFU treatment which was performed as a linear scan. In both groups, the preselected tissue volumes were destroyed without harming the overlying tissues. Necrosis rate (NR, cm(3)/s) was used to reflect the ablation efficiency, which was the tissue volume of occurring coagulative necrosis per 1s HIFU exposure. NR was improved in the experimental group (0.0570+/-0.0433 vs 0.0120+/-0.0122, P=0.0002). Pathological studies confirmed that there were no residual intact targets within the exposed volume. These findings suggested that the introduction of the micro-bubble agent enhanced HIFU liver destruction.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ultrasound Engineering in Medicine, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, PR China. yutinghe@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Tinghe
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Shuhua
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Timothy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.forename: Zhibiao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D008099:Liver / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D045423:Microbubbles; D009336:Necrosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D011817:Rabbits; D014463:Ultrasonography