Selective infarct zone imaging with intravenous acoustically activated droplets

BackgroundMicrobubbles (MB) can be compressed to nanometer-sized droplets and reactivated with diagnostic ultrasound; these reactivated MB possess unique imaging characteristics.ObjectiveWe hypothesized that droplets formed from compressing Definity MB may be used for infarct-enhancement imaging.MethodsFourteen rats underwent ligation of their left anterior descending (LAD) artery, and five pigs underwent 90 minute balloon occlusions of their mid LAD. At 48 hours in rats, transthoracic ultrasound was performed at two and four minutes following 200 μL intravenous injections (IVI) of Definity droplets (DD), at which point the MI was increased from 0.5 to 1.5 to assess for a transient contrast enhancement zone (TEZ) within akinetic segments. In pigs, 1.0 mL injections of DD were administered and low frame rate (triggered end systolic or 10 Hz) imaging 2–4 minutes post iVI to selectively activate and image the infarct zone (IZ). Infarct size was defined by delayed enhancement magnetic resonance imaging (DE-MRI) and post-mortem staining (TTC).ResultsIncreasing MI to 1.5 (at two or four minutes after IVI) resulted in a TEZ in rats, which correlated with infarct size (r = 0.94, pConclusionDD formulated from commercially available MB can be acoustically activated for selective infarct enhancement imaging.