Examines in detail the different clinical applications of microbubble-based contrast agents. Explains the principles underlying the use of contrast-specific imaging techniques and the examination methodology. Contains numerous high-quality illustrations, including many in color. Written by recognized experts.

Examines in detail the different clinical applications of microbubble-based contrast agents. Explains the principles underlying the use of contrast-specific imaging techniques and the examination methodology. Contains numerous high-quality illustrations, including many in color. Written by recognized experts.

This book will familiarize the reader with recent advances in echo imaging technology with special emphasis on echo enhancing agents. Several important strides have been made in this field during the past few years, especially in the contrast enhancement of conventional and color Doppler images. The book begins with chapters on the history of contrast echocardiography, the principles of contrast echo and descriptions of new contrast agents capable of transpulmonary passage following intravenous injection. Safety issues in contrast echocardiography are also discussed. The second section of the book deals with clinical uses of echo contrast agents. Their usefulness in the identification of cardiac structures and assessment of pathological lesions using both transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography are fully discussed. Technical and practical considerations in the use of various contrast agents are also described. The use of contrast echo in the identification of cardiac sources of embolism as well as possible mechanisms and clinical significance of spontaneous contrast echoes are also covered. Six chapters fully discuss the basics of contrast enhancement of conventional and color Doppler images and its clinical utility in the noninvasive assessment of pulmonary artery pressure, regurgitant and stenotic lesions and in the delineation of coronary arteries. Another chapter describes the non-cardiac applications of the echo contrast enhancement technique. The final section of the book investigates the role of echo contrast enhancement in quantitative cardiovascular analysis.

This book provides an up-to-date overview on the clinical value of contrast agents in ultrasound. The volume moves from a background section on technique and methodology to the main sections on the clinical application of contrast ultrasound in the liver and in vascular diseases. A final section discusses results and prospects of contrast ultrasound modality in the other fields.

Journalists, always very direct and in search of sensation, essentially asked me two questions on the occasion of this workshop: What were the goals of the meeting? With the improvement of diagnosis through the development of image techniques, didn't the contrast media already have their future behind them? Many answers were provided during the course of the workshop, and in order to best answer the journalists I proposed the following synopsis. 1. Since the 1979 Colorado Springs workshop organized by E. Lasser, progress has been so rapid and the newly available works so numerous that another meeting on an international level for the purpose of pre senting and discussing these advances appeared indispensable. Why not then in Europe and why not in Lyon? To expand on this progress, by 1981 the new contrast media with less-hyperosmolar molecules, still in the trial stage in 1979, were al most all available commercially for angiography, albeit at prohibitive prices. The advantages of these various media are becoming better known; moreover, in the wake of Lasser's work, our understanding of the pathophysiology of their noxious effects is also advancing rapidly owing to the use of models (for the target organs: heart, vessel wall, nervous system, kidney; and for the more general reactions: blood cells, coagulation, complement system, circulating enzymatic systems). In addition, further new molecules are currently being studied in re search laboratories. 2.

This volume highlights and broadens our understanding of the correct use and the possible contraindications of contrast agents applied in radiology. Written by experts in the field, it not only focuses on the chemistry, physiochemical properties and pharmacokinetics of both iodinated and gadolinium-containing contrast agents, but also on the relevant safety issues such as frequency of their short- and long-term side effects and ways to avoid them nephrotoxicity risk related to the iodinated contrast agents NSF (nephrogenic systemic fibrosis) accumulation of gadolinium in the brain use of contrast agents in pediatric patients and pregnancy It also includes essential data on the use of contrast agents, such as scanning protocols, in the context of various clinical conditions. This comprehensive manual addresses all professionals involved in radiological imaging and is an invaluable tool for radiologists and technologists, as well as for residents and clinicians.

Diagnostic Ultrasound Imaging provides a unified description of the physical principles of ultrasound imaging, signal processing, systems and measurements. This comprehensive reference is a core resource for both graduate students and engineers in medical ultrasound research and design. With continuing rapid technological development of ultrasound in medical diagnosis, it is a critical subject for biomedical engineers, clinical and healthcare engineers and practitioners, medical physicists, and related professionals in the fields of signal and image processing. The book contains 17 new and updated chapters covering the fundamentals and latest advances in the area, and includes four appendices, 450 figures (60 available in color on the companion website), and almost 1,500 references. In addition to the continual influx of readers entering the field of ultrasound worldwide who need the broad grounding in the core technologies of ultrasound, this book provides those already working in these areas with clear and comprehensive expositions of these key new topics as well as introductions to state-of-the-art innovations in this field. - Enables practicing engineers, students and clinical professionals to understand the essential physics and signal processing techniques behind modern imaging systems as well as introducing the latest developments that will shape medical ultrasound in the future - Suitable for both newcomers and experienced readers, the practical, progressively organized applied approach is supported by hands-on MATLAB® code and worked examples that enable readers to understand the principles underlying diagnostic and therapeutic ultrasound - Covers the new important developments in the use of medical ultrasound: elastography and high-intensity therapeutic ultrasound. Many new developments are comprehensively reviewed and explained, including aberration correction, acoustic measurements, acoustic radiation force imaging, alternate imaging architectures, bioeffects: diagnostic to therapeutic, Fourier transform imaging, multimode imaging, plane wave compounding, research platforms, synthetic aperture, vector Doppler, transient shear wave elastography, ultrafast imaging and Doppler, functional ultrasound and viscoelastic models

This large format book is the definitive text on vascular surgery written by expert editors and contributors. It is well supported by exceptional illustrative material. The book is invaluable to all those who work in vascular laboratories as wel.l as internists, cardiologists, vascular laboratory directors and staff, general surgeons involved in vascular surgery and the vascular surgery community in general Noninvasive Vascular Diagnosis comprehensively covers all aspects of noninvasive evaluation of the circulatory system in the extremities. The increasing popularity of noninvasive techniques is not reflected in the number of comprehensive works on the topic and it is clear from the success of the first edition that the demand for an updated volume is increasing.

With the contribution from more than one hundred CNS neurotrauma experts, this book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account on the latest developments in the area of neurotrauma including biomarker studies, experimental models, diagnostic methods, and neurotherapeutic intervention strategies in brain injury research. It discusses neurotrauma mechanisms, biomarker discovery, and neurocognitive and neurobehavioral deficits. Also included are medical interventions and recent neurotherapeutics used in the area of brain injury that have been translated to the area of rehabilitation research. In addition, a section is devoted to models of milder CNS injury, including sports injuries.

In the last few years, the development of sonographic contrast agents - or "microbubbles" - has stimulated increasingly intensive studies on the rela tionships between ultrasound and contrast media. As a result, "contrast -spe cific" hardware and software systems have been introduced by different ultra sound manufacturers with impressive speed. This has finally led to the birth of a very new imaging modality -"contrast-enhanced sonography" (CEUS). Since 1999, the introduction of second-generation contrast agents has represented a decisive step towards the extensive clinical use of CEUS and has simultaneously made obsolete most, if not all, scientific publications available so far. This book is, to our knowledge, the first to deal entirely with second generation contrast agents and the most updated contrast-specific software for noncardiologic uses. The reasons why the liver has been chosen as the only "target" of the book are easily understandable by radiologists and hepatologists alike. The study of vascularity is the only purpose of CEUS, and the liver has a unique vascular system, with two different inflow systems resulting in a single outflow. Furthermore, the pathologically different focal liver lesions (FLLs) are mostly characterized by different "models" of vascularity: CEUS can mimic contrast enhanced computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, basing differential diagnosis on the morphological and temporal characteristics of enhancement, but with the additional unique advantage of the study being done in real-time.