Implementation of a controlled injection system for dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasonography

Dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (DCEUS) can detect perfusion modifications during anti-angiogenic therapy preceding tumor size regression. In particular, perfusion parameters can be useful to predict the early response of a patient to a therapy. However, assessment is sensitive to injection variability. In this work, we propose a method for controlled injection of ultrasound contrast agent and demonstrate the improved evaluation of contrast enhancement obtained relative to manual injections for both in vitro and in vivo experiments. Perfusion parameters of the area under the curve for the wash-in and rise time gained the most in terms of reproducibility, improvement of CV values were from 24% to 5% and 25% to 7%, respectively. This study, demonstrates the benefit of using a controlled injection system to improve reproducibility of UCA injection in pre-clinical models.