In October, Professor Wrenn gave an invited talk titled “Acoustic Bubbles in Therapy: Voltage-Activated Ultrasound Contrast Agent for Myocardial Perfusion Imaging”, at Le Stadium in Tours, France. He described a voltage-sensitive phase change agent comprising an aqueous emulsion of surfactant-coated liquid perfluorocarbon droplets nested within a negatively charged phospholipid bilayer. The sensitivity to voltage allows, via exposure to an electric field, vaporization - and resultant acoustic activity - of the perfluorocarbon droplets at an ultrasound intensity that is otherwise insufficient to cause vaporization. The result is a phase change agent for which activation depends not on ultrasound intensity but rather on the presence of an electric field. Professor Wrenn now offers the first enhanced ultrasound contrast agent (ElectrastTM) that takes advantage of the electrical activity of the heart and leads to selective activation at a fixed mechanical index (MI). The voltage-sensitive agent activates selectively in the coronary circulation, giving enhanced ultrasound contrast within the myocardium while leaving other regions largely unenhanced.
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