TY - JOUR
T1 - Far-Wall Pseudoenhancement During Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound of the Carotid Arteries
T2 - Clinical Description and In Vitro Reproduction
AU - ten Kate, Gerrit L.
AU - Renaud, Guillaume G.J.
AU - Akkus, Zeynettin
AU - van den Oord, Stijn C.H.
AU - ten Cate, Folkert J.
AU - Shamdasani, Vijay
AU - Entrekin, Rob R.
AU - Sijbrands, Eric J.G.
AU - de Jong, Nico
AU - Bosch, Johan G.
AU - Schinkel, Arend F.L.
AU - van der Steen, Antonius F.W.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was performed within the framework of CTMM, the Center for Translational Molecular Medicine ( www.ctmm.nl ), project PARISk (grant 01C-202) and supported by The Netherlands Heart Foundation. The authors would like to thank Marcia Emmer for providing Figure 7 .
PY - 2012/4
Y1 - 2012/4
N2 - The present study describes the presence of pseudoenhancement during contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) imaging of human carotid arteries and the reproduction of this pseudoenhancement in vitro. Seventy patients underwent bilateral CEUS examination of the carotid arteries using a Philips iU22 ultrasound system equipped with a L9-3 ultrasound probe and SonoVue microbubble contrast. During CEUS of the carotid arteries, we identified enhancement in close proximity to the far wall, parallel to the main lumen. The location of this enhancement does not correlate to the anatomical location of a parallel vessel. To corroborate the hypothesis that this is a pseudoenhancement artifact, the enhancement was recreated in a tissue-mimicking material phantom, using the same ultrasound system, settings and contrast agent as the patient study. The phantom study showed that pseudoenhancement may be present during vascular CEUS and that the degree of pseudoenhancement is influenced by the size and concentration of the microbubbles. During vascular CEUS, identification of the artifact is important to prevent misinterpretation of enhancement in and near the far wall.
AB - The present study describes the presence of pseudoenhancement during contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) imaging of human carotid arteries and the reproduction of this pseudoenhancement in vitro. Seventy patients underwent bilateral CEUS examination of the carotid arteries using a Philips iU22 ultrasound system equipped with a L9-3 ultrasound probe and SonoVue microbubble contrast. During CEUS of the carotid arteries, we identified enhancement in close proximity to the far wall, parallel to the main lumen. The location of this enhancement does not correlate to the anatomical location of a parallel vessel. To corroborate the hypothesis that this is a pseudoenhancement artifact, the enhancement was recreated in a tissue-mimicking material phantom, using the same ultrasound system, settings and contrast agent as the patient study. The phantom study showed that pseudoenhancement may be present during vascular CEUS and that the degree of pseudoenhancement is influenced by the size and concentration of the microbubbles. During vascular CEUS, identification of the artifact is important to prevent misinterpretation of enhancement in and near the far wall.
KW - Attenuation
KW - Carotid artery
KW - Contrast-enhanced ultrasound
KW - Imaging artifact
KW - Microbubbles
KW - Nonlinear propagation
KW - Pseudoenhancement
KW - Vascular ultrasound
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2011.12.019
DO - 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2011.12.019
M3 - Article
C2 - 22341054
AN - SCOPUS:84857801135
SN - 0301-5629
VL - 38
SP - 593
EP - 600
JO - Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology
JF - Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology
IS - 4
ER -