[Recent progress of the medical ultrasound contrast imaging technology]

Abstract

Development and research on the ultrasound contrast agents is becoming a very important topic in the field of diagnostic ultrasound. The reason is that ultrasound contrast agents have an enormous potential clinical applications in cardiology, neurology and in vascular medicine. In this report, the problems encountered, the potential use and the future development of microbubble-type ultrasound contrast agents are discussed in detail. In coming years, it is expected that researches will concentrate on the development of long-lifetime and low-toxicity microbubbles contrast agents to overcome the problems that were encountered. After then, by making use of both the linear and non-linear properties of ultrasound contrast agents, the development of new generation ultrasound diagnostic equipment can be expected in the next decade.