A combined destruction-monitoring strategy: Rapid microbubble destruction within a focal region on a diagnostic ultrasound scanner

In this paper, a combined strategy to destruct a population of microbubbles selectively and rapidly on a diagnostic ultrasound scanner was proposed, in which a long, high-PRF sequence of focused pulses was used to form a focal region and a parallel imaging sequence was used to monitor the microbubble destruction. We tested effects of excitation parameters of focused pulse on microbubble destruction rates from the time-intensity-curve out of the focal region. It was shown that 95% microbubble within the focal region have been destructed at around 60 ms when insonicated with a four-cycle focused pulse at 2.07 MPa centered at 5MHz. Additionally, the microbubble destruction rate increases with increasing peak negative pressure, pulse length and transmit aperture of the focused pulses. The proposed strategy showed potential for rapid destruction of microbubble populating in a confined region in the whole field of view on a diagnostic ultrasound scanner.