title: Improving the performance of phase-change perfluorocarbon droplets for medical ultrasonography: current progress, challenges, and prospects.
abstract: Over the past two decades, perfluorocarbon (PFC) droplets have been investigated for biomedical applications across a wide range of imaging modalities. More recently, interest has increased in "phase-change" PFC droplets (or "phase-change" contrast agents), which can convert from liquid to gas with an external energy input. In the field of ultrasound, phase-change droplets present an attractive alternative to traditional microbubble agents for many diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Despite the progress, phase-change PFC droplets remain far from clinical implementation due to a number of challenges. In this review, we survey our recent work to enhance the performance of phase-change agents for ultrasound through a variety of techniques in order to provide increased efficacy in therapeutic applications of ultrasound and enable previously unexplored applications in diagnostic and molecular imaging.
authors.affiliation: Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
authors.forename: Paul S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Sheeran
authors.affiliation: Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Dayton