Hysteretic Nonlinearity of Sub-harmonic Emission from Ultrasound Contrast Agent Microbubbles

Sub-harmonic contrast imaging promises to improve ultrasound imaging quality by taking advantage of increased contrast to tissue signal. The aim of this study is to examine the hysteretic nonlinearity of sub-harmonic component emitted from microbubbles. Two kinds of microbubble solutions, i.e. Sonovue® and a self-developed contrast agent, are utilized in the study. The hysteretic curves for increasing and decreasing acoustic pressure are theoretically predicted by the Marmottant model and confirmed by measurements. The results reveal that for both microbubble solutions, the development of the rising ramp undergoes three stages, i.e. occurrence, growth and saturation; while hysteresis effect appears in the descending ramp. SonoVue® microbubbles exhibit better sub-harmonic performance over the self-developed UCAs microbubbles due to the difference of elastic properties of the shell.