Abstract
The future of contrast agents probably resides not only in their ability to highlight a lesion but also to characterize it and discriminate between various functional status at the molecular level. The high sensitivity of ultrasound (US) contrast imaging allows to detect a monolayer of gas-filled microbubbles, even at low density of coverage (1,2). Studies demonstrating the feasibility of attachment of ligands onto microbubbles and targeting experiments in vitro and even in vivo have been recently reported (3–5). Thrombus formation within the cardiovascular system mediates acute coronary syndromes, thromboembolic diseases, and thrombophlebitis. Arterial thrombi are platelet rich, and successful imaging of arterial and cavitary thrombi has the greatest chance of success using US contrast agents targeted to platelets (3). The large number of GPIIbIIIa receptors found on the surface of activated platelets provides a very abundant and accessible target (as determined by histology) (6). The objective of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of imaging targeted bubbles in a rabbit thrombosis model.
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