Contrast-enhanced ultrasound in clinical practice : liver, prostate, pancreas, kidney and lymph nodes / Thomas Albrecht [and others] ; preface by Marcus Hörmann
Dynamic vascular pattern of focal liver lesions with contrast-enhanced ultrasound: latest results with SonoVue / Thomas Albrecht -- Usefulness of contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the characterization of pancreatic and renal masses / Lars Thorelius -- Improved characterization of reactive and malignant lymph nodes using contrast-enhanced ultrasound / Luigi Solbiati and Luca Cova -- What role for contrast-enhanced ultrasound in prostate cancer examination? / Ferdinand Frauscher
Summary
The value of ultrasound contrast agents (USCA) in everyday clinical practice depends on the pharmacokinetics, the signal processing, and the contrast-specific imaging modalities. Second-generation USCA, are blood pool agents that do not leak into the organ tissue to be examined but remain in the intravascular compartment increasing the Doppler signal amplitude during their dynamic vascular phase. Taking advantage of the stability of their microbubbles, they can withstand the acoustic pressure of insonation much better than first-generation contrast media, which results in an increased half-life
