Nonspherical vibrations of microbubbles in contact with a wall: a pilot study at low mechanical index.

H. J. Vos (1) , Benjamin Dollet (2) , J. G. Bosch , Michel Versluis (3) , Nico de Jong (1)

1 ErasmusMC- ThoraxCentruum
2 IPR - Institut de Physique de Rennes
3 University of Twente

Radially oscillating microbubbles can deform when in contact with a wall. These nonspherical shapes have a preferential orientation perpendicular to the wall. Conventional microscope setups for microbubble studies have their optical axis perpendicular to the wall (top view); consequently they have a limited view of the deformation of the bubble. We developed a method to image the bubble in a side view by integrating a mirror in the microscope setup. The image was recorded at 14.5 million frames per second by a high-speed camera. When insonified by a 1-MHz, 140-kPa ultrasound pulse, a 9-microm diameter coated bubble appeared spherical in the top view, but strongly nonspherical in the side view. Its shape was alternatively oblate and prolate, with maximum second order spherical harmonic amplitude equal to the radius.

Mots clés: Ultrasound contrast agent; Bubble wall interaction; Asymmetric oscillation; Orthogonal view imaging

Domaines: Biochimie, Biologie Moléculaire

H. J. Vos, Benjamin Dollet, J. G. Bosch, Michel Versluis, Nico de Jong. Nonspherical vibrations of microbubbles in contact with a wall: a pilot study at low mechanical index.. Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology, 2008, 34 (4), pp.685-8. ⟨10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2007.10.001⟩. ⟨hal-00673935⟩