Time evolution of ambient pressure sensitivity of microbubbles subharmonic response as a function of hydrostatic pressure and the filling gas

Abstract

The ultrasound contrast microbubbles have shown a great ability to produce nonlinear oscillations in response to acoustic excitation which results in the generation of harmonics and subharmonics of the excitation. The subharmonic response of ½ order changes significantly with a change in hydrostatic pressure in the physiological range. This property is being investigated for subharmonic aided pressure estimation (SHAPE), a noninvasive alternative to current methods for vascular pressure measurement in critical organs. In this study, the ambient pressure sensitivity of the subharmonic response of microbubbles with different gas cores and shells was investigated over 25–700 kPa acoustic pressure and the hydrostatic pressure range of 0–25 kPa. The subharmonic showed different trends of increase and decrease with hydrostatic pressure. The sensitivity has shown gradual change over time which was observed to be related to the hydrostatic pressure magnitude and the gas core. These findings could help to calibrate the SHAPE.